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Handbook of All 
Denominations 






REVISED EDITION 


NINETEEN TWENTY-FOUR 







PREPARED BY M. PHELAN 









THIRD EDITION 








NASHVILLE, TENN. 
COKESBURY PRESS 
1924 










CopyRIGHT, 1924 
BY 
LaMaR & BARTON 


rr S 
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION........... ee? rete, : vii 
PL TPURPISE Serer kas SE Sk oY aha ain eae s 1 
Pavenc Cc nristianso:: oe ee he Pees peewee Pe Ne at 
ReTTUITeirOl ROC ee ine ca ses teks Fe PS A Sarees Pyne alts 
Churches of God in Jesus Christ. Lhd Git nein teat 3 
Bite and AAVveNt UMOM A seer cos cece ekee eens 3 
DeVENtinLa vy AGVENLISTS S. ac sisi es eck es Seek ee 3 2 
ARMENIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA..........ccceeececee 4 
RAIS AOE DR BISM ho cie en eit clviek cil a atc Cpeierts ek 4 
SEM e TOT See at ee a ee ee ee te ee ee ee an 5 
BattisecC nirensOl Curis Vice ole oes feo ee eet 22 
PVCU ADLIGT Societe nels hase so Oa ene @ eh es 20 
PYEC WIL DADUIStS eth cee eee tees spay S| 
General Baptists......... Sir ie arta Pee Uateearen re etes Bipy 4 | 
Dari mark toa Dtistsasern oe cess ok ee Cree oe 24 

Old School, or Primitive, Baptists................ 22 
PePMIREAPP PISA LISTS ta ats cece Sees cis etr anche acetone 21 
MPCENtIe ey DADlists. 5 cis ci eee wT ee Oates 20 
Seer PINGING: DADTISt®: .osicdeu kh es aces owe eee es yt 20 
Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian............ 23 
aaa ESTEE ag dine Saal a ed a a ee a at ea ah pate 22 
POET EMILIO CH RG. Birocr cttel, Bot: sat aac ere eee 25 
DPITERINNTIR MS Oe Ne aie Sean ety Mion 'e cis aie eee! re « 25 
RAPIIVIS DEES TOL NCE Goes. et a he Ye on cc ns ais lee 28 
MUPPET MITeN Sot. oe Fea, eae sc Car err ok wes tees 29 
CATHOLIC APOSTOLIC (IRVINGITES) .-.....0iscecesees tat) Sa 
EMM te A tee od ae clos tee pigels HUGH Pte ett stots 31 
SUuPTE PATON PENG occ et ta cil Meare trai To er ont as 31 
CHRISTIAN AND MISSIONARY ALLIANCE............-... ae 
CHRISTIANS, OR CHRISTIAN CONNECTION.........--00% 32 
CHRISTIAN CATHOLIC CHURCH IN ZION (DOWIE)....... 35 
PMPRTIR A CTUNTICTS( os wi alien oc eet Gale e pe mae 36 
SINT IA LINION CHURCHES Souci. os viete kites Ct ein ee 41 
CHURCHES OF Gop (THE WINEBRENNERIANS).......... 42 


CHURCH OF GOD AND SAINTS OF CHRIST (COLORED).,.. 44 
ill 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS. 





PAGE 
CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM (SWEDENBORGIAN)... 45 
CHURCHES OF THE LIVING Gop (COLORED)............ 44 
COMMUNISTIC SOCIETIBG¢\. 6 igh ee res bee ta ae eens 47 
“Amana Society c23 icc. os ed oe ee eee ee 47 
- Shakers, or the Millennial Church................ 48 
LONGREGATIONALISTS 6.20 «ko he bee ee ee 49 
DIscrpLEs OF CHRIST. 30... s,s woe eae see ae ee 53 
EASTERN ORTHODOX CHURCH ©. nese ee eee 64 
ACVANGELICAL CHURCH. 20. ond sign Face Pee rte 67 
EVANGELICAL PROTESTANTS (GERMAN)..........2e000% 69 
EVANGELICAL SYNOD (GERMAN)........cccccecssecocs 69 
FRIENDS Sieh i eee acne 70 
FRIENDS OF THE TEMPLE. 3.) y =. ovase ses Gee ee 73 
Ho.ineEss Boprres (EVANGELISTIC ASSOCIATIONS)....... 73 
JE wis. CONGREGATIONS. |. v:s....5 5.5.) steer rick aie sale 76 
LATTER-DAY SAINTS, OR MORMONS.........eccccccees 79 
Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day 
PIBITUES woken ia'sces eae aie oles aw eas nee 88 
LUTHERANS (062 OS he isan ee a kes 89 
MENNONITES 52. ei's oo Chet elnn Clack. eee 93 
MESSIANIC WORLD MESSAGE..............5: Pe eet hie 2? 95 
DA RTHODISTS 2030 0. ook so ioe ene Re a ee eee 96 
MILLENNIAL DAWNISTS, OR RUSSELLITES.:.....-..+00% 123 
MORAVIANS (UNITAS FRATREM).........cccccccceccee 125 
NAZARENES (CHURCH OF THE NAZARENE)...........-. 128 
PRESBYTERIANS ¢ 7 aio cose we bin 6 oe cent ae eee 129 
Associate Church of North America. ............. 143 
Associate Reformed Synod of the South......... 443 
Cumberland Presbyterian, Colored............... 143 
Cumberland Presbyterians: ., <0. «4 +0: oe ae 140 
General Synod of the Presbyterian Church........ 143 
Presbytétian Church; U.S. oy. 6 Se 139 
Presbyterian Church, 1. S.Aj. = 0.2 vac nace ee 138 
Reformed Presbyterian Synod. ..............000. 142 
United Presbyterian Church.............cccccocs 142 
PROTESTANT CPISCOPALIANS. (0500s bb tan bee 146 
Reformed Episcopal ‘Church: 2,4... «4 «a vase 150 
REFORMED BODIKS Oo occ cl ods hee oo ee 152 
Christian Reformed Church....., RAR ar Sh mPa 


iv 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 


PaGE 

Pearicariat: Relormed.. tas sas alk aie Plo kde cee ae 155 
Reformed Church in America..............ce000. 153 
Reformed Church in the United States........... 154 
MUM ENA THOLIOCS Sere co's Pane ee bor cor Meee aes 155 
PEA BE MOUCS ve cr ee icc ae 6 a ea Ba etn Cee 167 
PETIA NUECES are oot ee ee. 168 

SE TIM EPL MES PGE on tii Chpeen 2 Mere ea erie ine 169 
American Rescue Workers. ..........-eecccesees 171 
WoenLeera OF Americas hii cis ok eos Cee 172 
SCANDINAVIAN EVANGELICAL CHURCHES............020% 172 
PCW ENGRPREDERS 2 oot cite io Ue eee we aw eee 173 
SepCAES OOS REM BEN oh eee oa cooks be oe ee wale 173 
SOCIETY POR ETHICAL CULTURE. 0 a oboe ve we lee caees 174 
PREMISE UALISES Co nee re ey te tae be Oe ee ren 174 
PR BOSOPHICAL OOCIETIES* fils ch choc cee ewer ees 177 
MEET ARIA MA core ee OSE oat sk hae Pe Ree 178 
STRAT EMIIRETURENG 0 oes CPi cs Ponce cutee dees 181 
REED RMSAL TST SMO Rana ah oh cy le Phaleow oe ee ces STs 184 
MEANY A SOCTEE YL, fait ae va Oe nue ee ae cake rere yee 186 

Vv 





PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION 


Tue first edition of this HanpBook was brought 
out in 1915, and was undertaken because the author 
had been unable to find any single volume in the 
field of denominational literature which filled his 
own wants. There were encyclopedias, to be sure, 
through which one might range in search of a single 
fact; and there were many large volumes on the his- 
tory or doctrinal position of particular Churches. 
There was also a work or two in which all denomi- 
nations were treated, but there was little or no at- 
tention given in these to the Old World origins and 
present connections of our various American de- 
nominations. It is enough to say, therefore, that 
the present volume was projected along lines which 
best filled the wants of the one preparing it. The 
reception accorded the first edition was really sur- 
prising, and the continued demand for the work has 
encouraged the author to revise it from time to time, 
to correct errors, for which he is continually on the 
lookout, and to keep it up to date by making such 
changes in statistical and other matter as will show 
the growth and other developments in the Church 
world. 

The sources of information used have been so 
varied and of such an extent that detailed references 
cannot be made. In the preparation of the original 
volume the publications of Dr. H. K. Carroll and 
those of the United States Census Bureau were the 


Vii 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 





basic authorities consulted, especially in regard to 
the smaller denominations. But wherever available 
the publications of the various denominations them- 
selves, on their own history, doctrines, and work, 
were always consulted. In the work of the present 
revision the “Yearbook of the Federal Council of 
Churches” has been often referred to in obtaining 
the latest statistics for those denominations which 
do not publish their own annual reports. In the 
cases of the more important bodies, however, their 
own yearbooks have been followed in compiling 
their latest statistics. 

This third edition is sent forth with the hope that 
it will fill more completely than any previous edition 
the needs and expectations of those who are inter- 
ested in the subject of which it treats. 

M. PHELAN. 

Bic SprinG, TEx., April 1, 1974. 


Vili 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMI- 
NATIONS 


SEED 


ADVENTIST 


Tuis is the general name of a family of denomina- 
tions whose leading tenet is a belief in the proxi- 
mate and personal second coming of Christ. The 
movement began in Massachusetts in 1831, under 
the leadership of William Miller, who previously 
had been a member of the Baptist Church. As a 
result of much study of the prophecies, Miller be- 
came convinced that the second coming of Christ 
was near at hand, and he began to lecture on the 
subject. In 1833 he published a pamphlet entitled 
“Evidences from Scripture and History of the Sec- 
ond Coming of Christ about the Year 1843 and of His 
Personal Reign of One Thousand Years.” Miller 
made many converts to his views, and the doctrine 
announced in his pamphlet was widely proclaimed. 
Upon the failure of his prophecy for the year 1843, 
he fixed 1844—to be exact, October 22 of that year 
—as the date of the second advent. When this 
prophecy failed, his followers became divided. It is 
estimated that at the time of Miller’s death (1849) 
they numbered 50,000. As a result of various divi- 
sions, there are now six bodies of Adventists, who, 
as a rule, simply await the second coming of Christ 
without attempting to fix a date for it. All hold, 
however, that it is near at hand, and they generally 


I 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 





look for the personal reign of Christ on earth. All 
agree also in practicing immersion as the mode of 
baptism. The following bodies represent the pres- 
ent divisions of Adventism: 

1. Seventh-Day Adventists.—T hese constitute the 
largest and best organized body of Adventists. The 
branch was organized in New Hampshire in 1845 
by a company of Miller’s followers, who adopted 
the belief that the seventh day of the week should 
be observed as the Sabbath. They hold that all the 
dead sleep in unconsciousness until the resurrection 
—a doctrine popularly known as “soul-sleeping’— 
when the righteous will be raised to eternal life and 
the wicked destroyed. Foot-washing is practiced 
among them. Members are expected to contribute 
a tenth of their income to the support of the Church. 
Local congregations are presbyterian in government. 
Congregations are organized into conferences, and 
these send representatives to a general conference, 
which meets annually. There are no settled pastors, 
but traveling evangelists visit the various congre- 
gations. The Seventh-Day branch, in common with 
other branches, devotes much attention to questions 
of diet and health, and they have built a number of 
sanitariums. The headquarters of the denomination 
were formerly at Battle Creek, Mich., but in 1903 
were removed to Washington, D, C., where pub- 
lishing interests are maintained. The membership 
is most numerous in the States of Michigan, Cali- 
fornia, Kansas, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, and 
Wisconsin, in the order named; but adherents are 
found in smaller numbers in nearly all the States. 
Missionary work is carried on in Europe, Asia, Af- 


2 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 
"gs ee eae eet re a lela de aaa 


rica, and Australia. Statistics: Ministers, 1,005; 
churches, 2,101 ; members, 98,106. 

2. Advent Christians—Formed in 1861. They 
agree with the Seventh-Day body in holding that 
the dead are unconscious and that the wicked will 
be destroyed. But they observe Sunday as the Sab- 
bath. They are strongest in the New England 
States. Statistics: Ministers, 770; churches, 535; 
members, 30,597. 

3. Church of God.—A branch of the Seventh-Day 
Adventists, which seceded in 1866 in protest against 
accepting Mrs. Ellen G. White as an inspired proph- 
etess. The body has its center at Stanberry, Mo. 
Statistics: Ministers, 46; churches, 22; members, 
848. 

4. The Life and Advent Union.—A small New 
England body, existing since 1848. Statistics: Min- 
isters, 21; churches, 7; members, 652. 

5. The Churches of God in Jesus Christ—Known 
also as Age-to-Come Adventists. They believe in 
the restitution of all things, with Christ enthroned 
as King on earth. They are found chiefly in the 
Middle West. Statistics: Ministers, 50; churches, 
87; members, 3,457. 

Statistics for all Adventist bodies: Ministers, 
1,892; churches, 2,752; members, 133,660. 


3 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 





ARMENIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA 


Tuis is an American branch of the national Church 
in Armenia, composed only of Armenians who have 
settled in this country. There are fourteen parishes 
in America, each under the supervision of a priest, 
and an Amenian bishop, primate of the Church in 
America, resides in Boston. In faith the Armenians, 
with some minor variations, are in harmony with 
the faith of the Eastern Orthodox Churches (gq. v.). 
Statistics: Ministers, 17; churches, 34; members, 
27,450. 


BAHAIS, OR “BABISM” 


THis is a sect of Mohammedanism, originating in 
Persia in 1844, under the leadership of Ali Moham- 
med, who proclaimed himself the “Bab” (Arabic for 
door or gate). The movement stands for the uni- 
versal brotherhood of man, the unity of all religions, 
and world-wide peace. There is an organization in 
the United States, with national officers and an an- 
nual convention. There are reported 57 “churches” 
and 2,884 members. 

4 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 





BAPTISTS 


“Wit the first decade of the seventeenth century 
we reach solid ground in Baptist history. Before 
that the history is more or less a matter of con- 
jecture, and our conclusions are open to doubt; but 
after that we have an unbroken succession of Bap- 
tist Churches, established by indubitable docu- 
mentary evidence.’’* 

The first Baptist Church that is known to have 
existed was formed in Holland in 1608 and was 
composed of English Separatists who had fled 
thither to escape persecution. Their leader, the 
Rev. John Smyth, there became acquainted with the 
Mennonite theory of the Church. He adopted and 
announced the view that a Scriptural Church 
should consist of the regenerate only, who have 
been baptized on a personal profession of faith. 
His rejection of infant baptism led to his being dis- 
fellowshiped by his flock. He then, with Thomas 
~Helwys and thirty-six others, formed a Church 
after his views. Smyth rebaptized himself and the 
others by affusion. A Confession of Faith was is- 
sued, Arminian in theology, but distinct in its claim 
that a Church should be composed only of baptized 
believers and that “only such should taste of the 
Lord’s Supper.” Smyth was soon afterwards ex- 
pelled from the Church he had formed on account 
of Pelagian views, and the congregation broke up. 
A part of the company, led by Thomas Helwys, re- 


*H. C. Vedder, “A Short History of the Baptists,” a book 
described as of “scholarly accuracy,” and for this reason it is 
followed mainly in tracing the early history of the Baptists. 


5 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 





turned to England and in 1611 formed in London 
the first Church of this faith on English soil. They 
came to be called General Baptists on account of 
their belief in a general, or universal, atonement. 
In 1644 there were forty-seven of these congrega- 
tions in England. 

The Particular Baptists originated in 1633, when 
several members of a Separatist congregation in 
London withdrew, on account of their disbelief in 
infant baptism, and formed a new congregation. 
In 1640 there was a further division in this second 
congregation when a part of the membership with- 
drew and adopted immersion as the mode of bap- 
tism. There being none of their number who had 
received such baptism, and “none having so prac- 
ticed it in England to professed believers,” they 
sent one of their number, Richard Blunt, to Holland 
to receive immersion at the hands of the Mennonites 
(who had adopted immersion in 1619). Blunt re- 
turned to England and began practicing immersion 
in 1641. In 1644 seven Churches of this branch 
united in a Confession of Faith. These congrega- 
tions came to be called the Calvinistic, or Particular, 
Baptists on account of their belief in a limited 
atonement. 

The name Baptist as a denominational title was 
first used about 1644 and was applied only to those 
congregations which practiced immersion. The 
Arminian, or General, Baptists gradually adopted 
the practice of immersion, although some of their 
congregations continued to baptize by affusion as 
late as 1653. 

The Confession of Faith adopted in 1644 is one 


6 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 


of the chief landmarks of Baptist history. It de- 
clares baptism to be “an ordinance of the New Tes- 
tament, to be dispensed upon persons professing 
faith,” and that only such should be admitted to the 
Lord’s Supper. “It is the first Confession of history 
to prescribe a single immersion as the form of bap- 
tism,” and “it probably still represents the views of 
the Baptists of the world more nearly than any other 
single Confession.”* The Confession is explicit in 
the advocacy of religious liberty as the right, and of 
good citizenship as the duty, of every Christian man. 

Baptists did not themselves enjoy the religious 
liberty which they advocated. Following the 
Restoration in 1660, Baptists, with other Dissenters, 
were harshly treated. If they kept perfectly quiet, 
they were not molested; but if they assembled for 
religious meetings, they became violators of the 
law, and the man who preached to them usually suf- 
fered severe penalties. The best-known victim of 
such treatment was John Bunyan. Although Bun- 
yan was never an orthodox Baptist (he repudiated 
the name and wished to be called simply a Christian 
and was guilty of numerous other deflections from 
Baptist practice), he is generally classed as a Bap- 
tist. He spent at different times nearly thirteen 
years in prison for the crime of preaching. It was 
to his third and last imprisonment that we owe his 
immortal allegory, “The Pilgrim’s Progress.” 

After 1689 Baptists were given a larger measure 
of toleration than they had ever known, but instead 
of growth there followed a period of languishment 





*MoGlothlin, “Baptist Confessiqns of Faith,” pages 169, 170. 
7 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 


and decay. Fifty years after the passage of the 
Act of Toleration the Baptists were scarcely more 
numerous than they had been before toleration was 
granted, while as to their spiritual condition “they 
had dwindled to a painful state of deadness and in- 
efficiency.” Extreme Calvinistic views came to pre- 
vail in the Particular Churches, which discouraged 
all evangelistic efforts among the unconverted. 
Among the General Baptists, Socinian views made 
rapid progress, and the Churches became largely 
Unitarian in their beliefs. This was followed by 
worldliness, lax discipline, and superficial preaching, 
and the members fell away in large numbers. 

A new era in Baptist history began as a result of 
the Wesleyan revival of the eighteenth century. 
Baptists participated in the general awakening, and 
there began a new era of growth, of zeal, and of 
missionary activity which has continued to the pres- 
ent time. The greatest name belonging to this 
period of Baptist history is William Carey, who 
combined the occupations of cobbler, school-teacher, 
and Baptist preacher. Carey became awakened on 
the condition of the heathen and the duty of Chris- 
tians to go to their relief. An illustration of the Cal- 
vinistic temper of the age is found in the authentic 
story of how once, when Carey attempted to speak 
on the subject next to his heart to a Baptist gather- 
ing, he was sternly told to “sit down, young man. 
When the Lord gets ready to convert the heathen, 
he will do it without your help or mine.” But 
Carey found a different hearing at the meeting of 
his association at Nottingham May 30, 1792, when 
he was appointed preacher. His discourse, based 

8 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 





upon Isaiah xliv. 2, 3, kindled a fire in a few hearts 
which resulted in the same year in the organization 
of the English Baptist Missionary Society. In June 
of the following year Carey himself led the way into 
the foreign field, spending the remainder of his life 
in India. Carey is justly regarded as the father of 
modern missions; for, though the Baptists were not 
the first in modern times to engage in this work, 
“it was Carey and his work that drew the attention 
of all Christians to it and quickened the Christian 
conscience and that gave the missionary cause a 
great forward impulse which it has never since 
lost.” 

The more notable features of English Baptist 
history during the last century include the forma- 
tion of the Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ire- 
land in 1813. It is a home missionary and social 
organization and is the most representative body in 
the United Kingdom. In 1891 the long-separated 
General and Particular Baptists became one body. 
The century also witnessed a change among English 
Baptists with regard to the communion and terms 
of membership. According to Vedder (and other 
authorities agree), Baptist principles are not now 
strictly upheld and practiced in England. Large 
numbers of Baptist Churches have become “open” 
on the communion question, and many Churches 
also have a “mixed” membership—that is, Pedo- 
baptists are received on the same terms with Bap- 
tists. “In many so-called Baptist Churches of Eng- 
land the ordinance of baptism [immersion] is sel- 
dom or never administered. . . . In short, so ef- 
fectually is the Church disguised as frequently to 


9 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 


be reckoned by both Baptists and Independents in 
their statistics.” The Baptist Churches in Wales, 
Scotland, and Ireland, however, for the most part 
adhere to traditional Baptist practices. Ireland has 
never been a congenial soil for Baptists. After more 
than two centuries of struggle, the island contains 
less than three thousand Baptists. 

“The American Baptist Yearbook for 1923” gives 
the following statistics: For Great Britain, 404,797 
Baptists; Germany, 54,674; Roumania, 21,182; 
Spain, 44,794; Sweden, 60,530; for all of Europe, 
636,246; but it is added, “Estimated that Russian 
Baptists number 2,000,000.” There are 32,763 Bap- 
tists reported for Africa, 31,224 for Australasia, and 
for all Asiatic countries 267,362. 

The Baptist Churches in America are not directly 
descended from the English Baptists, but owe their 
origin to an independent movement. Roger Wil- 
liams, an English Separatist, on coming to the 
colony of Massachusetts in 1631, became at once a 
disturbing element to the authorities on account of 
his advanced Puritan views. Williams stoutly ad- 
vocated the principle that the Church and the State 
should be separate and independent each of the 
other and that civil magistrates had no right to en- 
force worship nor punish breaches of the first table 
of the law, those commandments that relate to the 
worship of God. It is not at all certain that Wil- 
liams imbibed these notions from the English Bap- 
tists nor that he even knew of their holding such 
doctrines. 

In spite of his views, Williams was at one time 

to 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 


minister of the Church at Salem. But his pastorate 
was cut short by his being summoned before the 
court in Boston and condemned to banishment, the 
decree beginning: “Whereas Mr. Roger Williams, 
one of the elders of the Church at Salem, hath 
broached and divulged new and dangerous opinions 
against the authority of magistrates.” To escape 
deportation Williams made his way in midwinter 
through the wilderness, accompanied by a few ad- 
herents, bought land of the Indians, and founded 
the colony of Providence on the principle of civil 
and religious liberty. He soon abandoned his Pedo- 
baptist views, and on the site now occupied by 
Providence, R. I., he organized the first Church 
of the Baptist faith in America (1639). Williams 
was baptized (probably by affusion) by Ezekiel 
Holliman, one of his company, and he in turn bap- 
tized Holliman and eleven others. Williams later 
became doubtful of the authority of what ke had 
done and withdrew from the Church he had formed, 
preferring to be called through the remainder of 
his life merely a “seeker.” The Providence Church 
was divided in 1652, a colony going out to form a 
“Six-Principle” Baptist Church. The original, or 
regular, body became extinct shortly afterwards. 
In 1771 the Six-Principle Church was divided, one 
branch now bearing the title of the First Baptist 
Church of Providence. 

A company of Welsh Baptist immigrants founded 
the first Baptist Church in Massachusetts in 1665. 
The laws of this colony were made very strict 
against the Baptists, and until 1691 persons of this 

If 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 


faith were subjected to severe persecutions. In- 
stances are on record of ministers not only being 
fined for preaching against infant baptism, but some 
were “well whipped.” Not until 1833 were dissent- 
ing Churches in Massachusetts made free from — 
taxation for the support of the “State Church.” 
The most important and influential of the early 
Baptist centers was the group of Churches in and 
around Philadelphia, the first Church-dating from 
1688. In this section Baptists made rapid progress. 
The first Association of Churches was the Philadel- 
phia Association, organized in 1707, composed of 
twelve Churches. This Association later included 
Churches in New York colony and as far south as 
the Carolinas. The “Philadelphia Confession of 
Faith,’ adopted by this Association in 1742, was 
strongly Calvinistic and proved a turning point in 
the history of American Baptists, as thenceforth 
this type of theology held the day. Up to this time 
the Arminian Baptists had been the stronger, es- 
pecially in New England. The Philadelphia Asso- 
ciation soon became the leading body among the 
American Baptists, a position it has not wholly lost 
to this day. “Pretty much everything good in our 


history,” to use the words of a Baptist author, “from 
1700 to 1850 may be traced to its initiative or active 


cooperation.” 

The Great Awakening, beginning in 1734, gave 
powerful impetus to Baptist evangelistic effort and 
home missionary work. But the new movement met 
serious opposition in the denomination, and two 

I2 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 


parties arose—the “Regulars,” who disparaged re- 
vivals, and the “New Lights,” who fell in with the 
methods of Whitefield. The revival came to be 
generally accepted, resulting in a rapid growth, par- 
ticularly in the South. Baptist beginnings in the 
South were less early than in the North and New 
England; but by 1800, of forty-six associations in 
the country, twenty were in the South Atlantic 
States and seven beyond the Alleghanies. The 
number of Baptists in the country at this date, as 
estimated by the Philadelphia Association, was 
100,000, distributed among 1,200 Churches. The 
American Baptist Home Mission Society was 
formed in 1832. 

The work of foreign missions was undertaken by 
American Baptists in answer to a clear providential 
summons. In 1812 several missionaries, among 
them Adoniram Judson and his wife, were sent out 
to India by the Congregational Board. On the way 
out Judson and his wife changed their views on the 
subject of baptism. Upon arriving at Calcutta they 
sought out some English Baptist missionaries who 
were laboring there and were immersed. Another 
American missionary, Luther Rice, arriving on a 
later ship, joined them in their new faith. By a 
change of faith they had severed their relation with 
the Congregational Board. There was no Baptist 
Board in America and no interest in foreign mis- 
sions. It was resolved that Rice should return to 
America, relate the story of these new conversions, 
and throw the new mission upon the Baptists. 
Rice reached Boston in September, 1813; and as a 


T3 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 





result of the interest awakened by his story there 
was formed at Philadelphia in May, 1814, the Gen- 
eral Convention of the Baptist Denomination in the 
United States for Foreign Missions. Judson had 
in the meantime gone to Burma, and there the first 
American Baptist foreign mission was established. 

Controversy arising out of this new missionary 
movement produced a division into two parties— 
Missionary Baptists, who advocated foreign mis- 
sions, and antimission Baptists, who took the name 
of Primitive Baptists (see below). The latter were 
at first equal, if not superior, in numbers to the 
former. Another controversy which seriously af- 
fected the Baptist Churches of the South and West 
about 1815 was the preaching of Alexander Camp- 
bell and his followers. (See Disciples.) All the 
Churches of the Mahoning Association, Ohio, and 
many other Churches and scores of Baptist preach- 
ers went over to the new movement. A period of 
bitter controversy followed, and most of the 
Churches in the territory of the movement were 
‘divided. 

The division of the Baptists into Northern and 
Southern occurred in 1844 and grew out of the 
slavery question. The immediate occasion of the 
separation was action taken by the Mission Boards, 
Home and Foreign, both of which at the time of the 
offending action had a majority of Northern Bap- 
tists in attendance. In 1844 the Foreign Board de- 
clared that it would not appoint a slaveholder as a 
missionary. -This was followed in April, 1845, by 
resolutions adopted by the Home Board declaring 


14 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 


it to be “expedient that the members of the society 
should hereafter act in separate organizations at 
the South and at the North in promoting the ob- 
jects which were originally contemplated by the 
society.” As a result of these declarations, in re- 
sponse to a call issued by the Virginia Foreign Mis- 
sion Society, three hundred and ten delegates from 
the Southern Churches met in Augusta, Ga., in 
May, 1845, and organized the Southern Baptist 
Convention. This Convention established two 
boards, one for foreign missions and one for home 
missions. 

Since the settlement of the slavery question there 
have been occasional efforts made for a reunion of 
the Northern and Southern Baptists, but they have 
met with little favor either North or South. “But 
Northern and Southern Baptists are not, as some 
apparently delight to say, two separate denomina- 
tions. The Churches, both North and South, hold 
substantially one system of doctrine, agree in all 
important points of practice, receive and dismiss 
members from each other without question, and are 
in full, unrestricted, uninterrupted intercommunion,” 
says H. C. Vedder. 

While this is true, each branch—including the 
Colored Baptist branch, which is classed as “Regu- 
lar’”—maintains its own separate Church activities. 
Besides a general convention for each body and 
general agencies of these conventions, there are 
State conventions now organized in every State, 
which promote State missions and other local in- 
terests. The educational work of the Baptists, be- 
ginning. as far back as 1756, has had a remarkable 


i 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 


development since 1850. The leading educational 
institutions of the Northern Baptists are: Brown 
University, Providence, R. I., chartered as Rhode 
Island College in 1764; Colby College, Waterville, 
Me.; Colgate University, Hamilton, N. Y.; Des 
Moines College, Des Moines, Ia.; Denison Univer: 
sity, Granville, Ohio; University of Rochester, 
Rochester, N. Y. The charter of the University of 
Chicago provides that the president of that institu- 
tion and two-thirds of the trustees shell be mem- 
bers of regular Baptist Churches, but it prohibits 
the exaction of any religious tests af professors or 
students. The leading theologica} seminaries are: 
Rochester (N. Y.), the Divinity School of the Uni- 
versity of Chicago, Crozier (Upland, Pa.), and New- 
ton (Newton Center, Mass.). Baylor University 
(Waco, Tex.), Furman University (Greenville, S. 
C.), Mercer University (Macon, Ga.), John B. Stet- 
son University (De Land, Fla.), University of Rich- 
mond (Richmond, Va.), Wake Forest College 
(Wake Forest, N. (.), and Simmons College (Abi- 
lene, Tex.), together with the Southern Baptist The- 
ological Seminary (Louisville, Ky.) and Southwest- 
ern Baptist Theological Seminary (Fort Worth, 
Tex.) are thy leading educational institutions of the 
Southern Baptists. William Jewell College, at Lib- 
erty, Mn., is listed by both the Northern and South- 
ern Baptists. The Colored Baptists control ninety- 
two educational institutions, and, all told, the Regu- 
lar Baptists (Northern, Southern, and Colored) own 
or control 286 schools, colleges, and universities. 
Baptists have no Confession of Faith accepted 
as such; but many associations and local Churches, 


16 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 


particularly in the South, frequently publish a state- 
ment of Baptist principles. These generally follow 
the Philadelphia Confession or another known as 
the New Hampshire Confession, which is briefer. 
While the Philadelphia Confession is as baldly Cal- 
vinistic as the Westminster Confession, which it 
copies almost verbally in many of its articles, Bap- 
tists of the present day emphasize only the “Perse- 
verance of Saints” article of the Calvinistic faith. 
From a published address by Dr. R. S. MacArthur 
the following summary is taken as an expression of 
Baptist beliefs: “A fundamental principle of the 
Baptists, and one formerly held by them only, is 
that a man’s salvation depends solely on personal 
faith in Christ and the resultant change in inward 
character and not on baptism and other Church 
ordinances. They affirm that faith must be per- 
sonal, that no man can believe for another, no parent 
for a child, and that, therefore, the Church is not 
made up of believers and their children, except so 
far as the children are themselves believers, They 
administer baptism only to those who profess faith 
in Christ and give evidence in daily life of having 
been converted. They administer immersion, the 
baptism of the apostolic Church, the truly catholic 
baptism, and when this is impracticable they let the 
convert die without baptism. Baptists do not be- 
lieve that baptism is essential to salvation, but they 
believe that salvation is essential to baptism. . .. 
If there is ever organic unity, it will begin at the 
baptistery.” 

Baptist Churches are defined as “bodies of bap- 
tized believers, with pastors and deacons, cove- 


2 17 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 





nanted together for religious worship and religious 
work.” Only those “of like faith and order” are in- 


vited to partake of the Lord’s Supper. Churches are 
congregational in government, but congregations 
are associated in religious work, and there is a 
strong fraternal tie between different Churches. 
Men are ordained to the pastorate by councils com- 
posed of ministers and representatives of neighbor- 
ing Churches. 

Among the many Church “drives” following the 
World War the Northern Baptists inaugurated the 
New World Movement, for raising funds for mis- 
sionary and educational work. Up to April 30, 1923, 
there had been collected by this movement $35,519,- 
549. The Southern Baptists carried forward a “Sev- 
enty-Five Million Campaign” for similar purposes. 
Up to May 1, 1923, receipts from this campaign 
amounted to $43,933,815. 

‘There are 29 Baptist orphanages in the United 
States, 22 “Homes,” and 26 hospitals, of which last 
the Southern Baptists own or control twenty. 

The following are the membership statistics by 
States of the three Regular Baptist bodies, from 
Convention reports of 1923 as given in the last edi- 
tion of the “American Baptist Yearbook”: 


Northern Southern Colored 

Baptists Baptists Baptists 
Alahbamat ao cutins boo scores oa 247,912 285,573 
APio0s oa hae on ele oe 4.670 1 4532 Sea 
Arkansag:'s2neds 1S Steere eS aes 142,825 96,406 
California, Northern....... 19.510: - “Ghee 
California, Southern........ 36,974. OR eee 
CECE ATIEE fre oe teas o dee cg cero 20,401 ona Heute 
COMM ORTICUD ora on kos x Hates 29,539: 5. no 5 cota ee ee 
WIGIAWALG. SS crack a vae tems 2,887 ose kee be 


18 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 





Northern 

Baptists 
District of Columbia....... *13,300 
DLR a foes Seo Sara NN Saar Re 
REM MRAD  o ke ne ini te en's ee ee 
MR re os ee, eg 5,671 
TOM occ ria 8s 96,665 
bn TE ee ee ei 77,667 
REDO a at hens abo ove Oh 0 owe 47,787 
MEBs. etki s eet $1,570 
NTT el lane nC aa ei iB Ao ie abe PCy a 
ERP TAT Wi a aa SR ar a 
Oia aieks. Sl. Ro? ce 33,955 
TO SSU TTT OES AS ROE ID a gn or ake eo 
Massachusetts............. 90,850 
Pigte rae Sc A 54,009 
SRE ees) oa keys bees 29,977 
PEED ov ges o'x 0 Sa sok wee oe ae c 
PAIGE OLS. Sade. SSS RUS 72 oh 
a gaa UEFA cup 4,353 
lols CLT. Nepean alate niet, GAS eels 21,748 
New Hampshire........... 14,388 
Blew :LOrsey. o.<iisve apis ecnsey esos 58,231 
ERR METURIAVS ie oie ce ce eee See ees 
PROMI OE ne ot, ees eos Se eR at 184,228 
ET BE a Se 826 
PCR ATI ee oe ey an ee 
NMigri ts Ba kinta yo os nse sic eeis 6,897 
Me rh eo 5 a phate in ose 80,918 
oak. ie oh (Me Sori lala aa OS aa 1,679 
oS flee Ta a aes ae 14,867 
Pennsylvania........20c00- 126,105 
gyda (5 367 ws PA ag aaa 2,461 
Rhode fsland............. 19,314 
SECT FE a nee oe 
wipe te a) 2 a 9,549 
Tennessee..... veh nob ds tata ora 

1S EES ee a Se 
Ls Odes Se tA Oy ie ee 1,154 
PAEIMEE Slo bid ole wi shaw). oto, 9,867 
ETT 4 a ae 207,915 
CS QUEER TE Pe RS De aerate 
Washington, East.......... 6,786 
Washington, West......... 13,781 
a es Tai gee ais Alert yee 
MR on cu hn ace 1,284,764 


Southern 
Baptists 


eer eee 


97,698 


oS S60) re 
oe ee eve 


186,474 
216,131 


eer ee 8 © 
oo eevee 
eee eee 


ore eee 


eoeeeee 
ee eevee 
oe eee e 


239,347 
420,031 





Colored 
Baptists 
36,079 
785,000 
$53,288 


erveevee 


eee eee 
ee eree 


eoereee 


400,000 
35,000 


esesoees 
eee ee @ 
eeeteee 
eoeeeree 


eoeereee 


eres eve 


oeeeeve 


24,000 


sre ee @ 


3,352,938 3,137,160 





*Codperating with both Northern and Southern Conventions, but not counted 


in Southern totals. 


tEvident from the even numbers given that many of these figures are esti- 
mates. It is indicated also that many are from previous reports, 


19 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 





Grand total of all Regular Baptists in the United 
States, 7,774,862. 
OTHER Baptist BopIEs 


Besides the Regular Baptist bodies, which are 
classified as (1) Regular, North, (2) Regular, South, 
and (3) Regular, Colored, there are other Baptist 
bodies, as follows: 

4. Six-Principle Baptists—They take their name 
from their creed, founded upon Hebrews vi. 1 and 2, 
which consists of six principles: Repentance from 
dead works, faith toward God, doctrine of baptism, 
the laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and 
eternal judgment. The first Church was organized 
in Rhode Island in 1652. There are eighteen or- 
ganizations, of which twelve are in Rhode Island. 
There are reported 600 members. 

5. Seventh-Day Baptists are distinguished mainly 
by their observance of the seventh day as the Sab- 
bath. They first appeared in England in 1676, the 
first Church founded still surviving. The first 
American Church was founded in Rhode Island in 
1671. They have a foreign missionary society and 
support a publishing house and two colleges. The 
denomination is represented in twenty-four States, 
being most numerous in New York, Wisconsin, and 
Rhode Island. They report eighty-one churches 
and 7,643 members. 

6. Free Baptists——Originated in New Hamp- 
shire in 1780, when Benjamin Randall, a Congrega- 
tional minister, joined by two Baptist ministers, or- 
ganized a Church. They rejected the Calvinistic 
doctrines held by the Regular Baptists; hence their 
name. The denomination grew rapidly, but later 

20 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 





lost several thousand members to the Adventist 
movement. In 1841 the Free Communion Baptists, 
a small body in New York, united with them. The 
Free Baptists as a distinct denomination no longer 
exist, the main body of the membership and all de- 
nominational agencies having been united with the 
Northern Baptists. 

7. Freewill Baptists arose in North Carolina in 
1729 by forming an association separate from the 
Regular Baptists. They reject Calvinism and prac- 
tice open communion. Foot-washing and anointing 
the sick with oil are practiced among them. They 
are found only in the Carolinas. They have quar- 
terly and annual conferences, the latter exercising 
oversight of ministers and having power to settle 
difficulties between Churches. Statistics: Ministers, 
920; churches, 800; membership, 60,000. A colored 
branch is credited with 13,362 members, and an- 
other branch called the “Bullockites” has 184 mem- 
bers. 

8. General Baptists.—These were originally sim- 
ilar to the General Baptists of England, holding 
Arminian views and practicing open communion ; 
but most of the early Churches of this kind in Amer- 
ica later became Calvinistic. The first association 
of General Baptists was organized in Kentucky in 
1824. They are strongest in Missouri, Indiana, Ken- 
tucky, and Illinois. They have 518 churches and 
33,466 members. 

9. The Separate Baptists date from the White- 
field revival and were originally composed of Bap- 
tists who favored that movement, separating from 
Baptists who opposed it. They are now generally 
in doctrinal agreement with the Freewill, or Free 

21 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 





Baptists. They are found only in Indiana, with 
4,000 members (1910 report). 

10. United Baptists, the result of a union of many 
Separate Baptists with Regular Baptists, this union 
occurring mainly in Kentucky and Virginia. The 
doctrinal result of the union was a modified Cal- 
vinism. Open communion is practiced, also foot- 
washing. The report for 1916 is 22,097 members. 

11. Baptist Church of Christ, organized in Ten- 
nessee in 1808. They have spread to six other 
States. They hold a modified Calvinism and prac- 
tice foot-washing. The strength of the denomina- 
tion is found mostly in the region in Tennessee 
where it originated. Report for 1916, 6,872 mem- 
bers. ; 

12. Old School, or Primitive, Baptists——The 
members of this denomination claim to be the orig- 
inal Baptists, from whose principles and practices all 
others have departed. This body took its rise about 
1835 in organized opposition to foreign missions, 
Sunday schools, and other “human institutions.” 
The opposition was founded in the hyper-Calvinis- 
tic views of the seceding Churches, it being their 
view that missionary societies, Sunday schools, etc., 
tended to make the salvation of men depend upon 
human effort rather than on divine grace. An ar- 
ticle in the original constitution of the Churches de- 
clines fellowship “with any Church or Churches 
which support any missionary, Bible, tract, or 
Sunday school society,” or which advocates State 
conventions or theological schools “formed under 
the pretense of circulating the gospel.” The Primi- 
tive Baptists do not believe in an educated or sal- 


22 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 


aried ministry. They practice foot-washing and 
close communion. Churches are divided in many 
localities on their Calvinistic theology, but the main 
body of the membership and ministry holds fast to 
the old doctrine of the “decrees.” Churches are or- 
ganized into associations, of which there are two 
hundred and seventy-nine, fifteen of which are col- 
ored. Primitive Baptists are most numerous in the 
South, Georgia leading; but everywhere the denom- 
ination has shown a decline in membership. No fig- 
ures are obtainable later than those of the U. 5. Re- 
ligious Census of 1916, which shows the Primitive 
Baptists as having 1,292 ministers, 2,143 churches, 
and 80,311 members. The Colored Primitive Bap- 
tists, by the same report, have 15,144 members. 

13. Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian.—These 
took their origin and name from certain theological 
speculations of Daniel Parker, a Baptist preacher 
who labored in Tennessee, Illinois, and Texas. Par- 
ker sought to explain the doctrine of election on the 
theory that a part of Eve’s offspring were the seed 
of God and as such were to be saved, and a part 
were the seed of the devil and were to be lost. All 
the manifestations of good or evil in man are but 
the result of the infusion of particles of God or of 
the devil in them, and the Christian warfare is a 
conflict between these opposing particles. The 
Two-Seed Churches agree with the Primitive Bap- 
tists in their extreme Calvinism and in their opposi- 
tion to missions, Sunday schools, etc. The body is 
known only in Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, and 
Texas, and has, by the 1916 census reports, 30 
churches, 13 ministers, and 387 members. 


23 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 





14. Landmark Baptists——Regarded in some sec- 
tions as a distinct denomination; but, according to a 


Landmark pamphlet, “By Landmarkism is meant 
only that some Baptists refuse to take up with new 
inventions, and that they steadfastly contend for the 
old order of things. Landmarkism is not the begin- 
ning of a new denomination. The exact opposite is 
true.” The Regular Baptists have departed from 
the ancient landmarks of Baptist faith and practice, 
and Landmarkers are the true Baptists, according 
to this view. The latter hold aloof from the asso- 
ciational and conventional activities of other Baptist 
bodies and have no fellowship with other Baptist 
churches. In Texas Landmark Baptists are more gen- 
erally known as “Anti-Board Baptists.” They have 
one college (Jacksonville, Tex.), two orphans’ homes, 
and issue papers at Little Rock, Ark., Fulton, Ky., 
Dallas and Texarkana, Tex. There are State Asso- 
ciations in Mississippi, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennes- 
see, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, and a General 
Association covering the country. The editor of the 
Baptist Commoner (Texarkana), in answer to in- 
quiries, states: “There are thirteen thousand congre- 
gations which are considered Landmark churches. 
There are estimated about two million Landmark 
Baptists in America.” 

‘Total number of Baptists of all bodies in the Unit- 
ed States, “correct Baptist figures as far as report- 
ed,” as given by the American Baptist Yearbook for 
1923, 8,160,686. 

Baptists in the Dominion of Canada, 135,588. 

No authoritative or late estimate of the number of 
Baptists in the world has been published. 


24 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 
BRETHREN CHURCHES 


THREE religious families call themselves simply 
the Brethren. These are the Dunkard Brethren 
(five bodies), Plymouth Brethren (six bodies), 
and the River Brethren (three bodies). They are 
distinct in origin, but hold many principles and 
practices in common. 

The Dunkards.—These are otherwise known as 
Dunkers, or Tunkers, from the German word “tun- 
ken,’ meaning to dip, which is their mode of bap- 
tism. They are also known as German Baptist 
Brethren. The body arose during a religious awak- 
ening in Germany in the latter part of the 
seventeenth century, when many pious people be- 
came dissatisfied with the State Church. In 1708 
Alexander Mack and eight companions of like con- 
victions organized a society at Schwarzenau, West- 
phalia, agreeing to follow the New Testament alone 
as their guide. They began the practice of baptism 
by trine immersion, administering it to adults only. 
They gained many adherents to their ranks, and 
within a few years there were Churches with many 
members in Germany, Switzerland, and Holland. 
-Persecutions arose, and, encouraged by liberal land 
grants by William Penn, within a few years prac- 
tically the entire membership emigrated to Pennsyl- 
vania. The first congregation in America was or- 
ganized at Germantown in 1723, with Peter Becker 
as minister. The first division in their ranks oc- 
curred in 1732, when a small company, led by John 
Conrad Beissel, withdrew on account of differences 
concerning the Sabbath and community of goods 
and established the Ephrata Community (see under 


25 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 





“Communistic Societies”). An important incident 
in the history of the Germantown Church was the 
editing and printing of the first German Bible in 
America, the work being done by Christopher Saur. 
Some copies of this publication are still in existence. 
The Brethren spread rapidly to the West and South 
as the country opened up, and now they are found 
in large numbers throughout the Central Western 
States, their membership being made up entirely of 
Germans. 

In belief and practice, the Dunkards undertake to 
follow the New Testament, in the main interpreting 
it literally and applying it to the minutest affairs of 
life. In receiving members, the candidate is im- 
mersed three times in water, face forward, and in a 
kneeling posture, after which the administrator lays 
his hands upon the member’s head and offers prayer. 
They take the Lord’s Supper usually in the eve- 
ning, preceded by a love feast. Foot-washing is 
observed among them, during which service there 
is an exchange of the right hand of fellowship, and 
the kiss of charity is given, the sexes being sep- 
arated during the foot-washing and attendant cere- 
monies. In their relation to the world the Dunkards 
have strictly inculcated nonconformity and nonre- 
sistance. In agreement with these views they have 
generally settled in rural colonies, and they follow 
the simplest pursuits. Plainness of dress is en- 
joined, and differences among them are settled 
without going to law. They take but little interest 
in politics, are opposed to secret societies, forbid the 
use of tobacco, and have always been sternly op- 
posed to the manufacture, sale, or use of intoxicating 
liquors. 


26 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 


The chief ecclesiastical body of the Dunkards is 
the annual meeting, or conference. Here all ques- 
tions pertaining to doctrine and usage are settled, 
and the action of this conference is binding upon the 
Church members. The ministry consists of bishops, 
elders, and deacons, all of whom are elected by the 
congregations. The ministers are untrained and 
usually receive no stated salary, but pursue other 
livelihoods in connection with their ministry. 

In 1882 the Dunkards suffered a division in the 
separation of the “progressive” wing of the denomi- 
nation, the immediate cause of the break being the 
expulsion in that year by the annual meeting of 
Henry R. Holsinger, a leading progressive, on the 
charge of speaking and writing disrespectfully of 
some leading members of the Church. The progres- 
sive element were less strict in their association 
with the world and advocated more extensive mis- 
sionary and educational activities. The progres- 
_ sives organized as a separate Church in a conven- 
tion held at Dayton, Ohio, in 1883. As a result of 
the progressive agitation in the Church there arose 
the Old Order Brethren, the wultraconservatives, 
who opposed all change and refused to adopt new 
methods. They separated themselves from the main 
body, now called the Conservatives, in 1881. They 
have no affiliation with either of the other bodies. 

The Conservative Brethren now number 3,264 
ministers, 1,024 churches, and 112,563 members, their 
largest strength being in the States of Pennsylvania, 
Indiana, Ohio, and Virginia. There are considera- 
ble bodies also in Missouri, Kansas, and Illinois. 

The Progressives number 312 ministers, 182 
churches, and 19,387 members, found chiefly in 


27 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 


Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Ohio. The Progressives 
have extended their missionary work to some of the 
large cities, as Washington, Philadelphia, and Chi- 
cago. 

The Old Order Brethren number 210 ministers, 
36 churches, and 3,400 members, nearly all in Ohio. 

A Seventh-Day (German) branch is reported, 
with 500 members, and a new branch called the 
Church of God, or New Dunkards, with 582 mem- 
- bers. 

Plymouth Brethren.—This sect came into exist- 
ence at Dublin, Ireland, about 1828, when one 
John Nelson Darby formed a society whose chief 
characteristic at the time was a protest against the 
exclusive High Church principles and alleged dead 
formalism of the Church of Englarid. Another so- 
ciety was organized at Plymouth, England, and this 
grew into such public notice as to give rise to the 
name. The movement has extended itself through- 
out the British dominions, to the continent of Eu- 
rope, and to the United States. The Brethren are 
Calvinistic in doctrine. Millenarian views are gen- 
erally held among them. They are very exclusive 
in their practices, having no fellowship with other 
denominations. They have Sabbath gatherings for 
Bible study and the Lord’s Supper, but they have 
no regular Church organization, no church build- 
ings, and no ordained ministry. Adults only are 
baptized. Divisions have occurred among them, 
growing out of questions of doctrine and discipline; 
but none of the branches has ever taken a denomi- 
national name. For purposes of distinction they are 
classified in the United States census reports as 

28 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 





Plymouth Brethren I., II., III, 1V., V., and VI. The 
census reports of 1916 credit all branches with a 
membership of 13,717. They are most numerous in 
the States of New York and Illinois. 

River Brethren.—These consist of several small 
congregations, found mainly in Pennsylvania. 
They resemble in doctrine and practice the Men- 
nonites, from whom it is believed they have sprung. 
Swiss immigrants formed the first organization near 
the Susquehanna River, in Pennsylvania, in 1750. 
They baptized their members in the river; hence 
the name applied tothem. They baptize by trine im- 
mersion, observe foot-washing, and teach noncon- 
formity to the world. They are distinguished as: 

(1) Brethren in Christ, the most numerous and 
best-organized branch. They have district confer- 
ences and a general conference. Membership, 3,622. 
Pa. Membership, 432. 

(3) United Zion’s Children, with 1,165 members. 





CATHOLIC APOSTOLIC (IRVINGITES). 


In 1829-30 Rev. Edward Irving, a minister of the 
Church of Scotland, began preaching in London on 
the spiritual gifts of the apostolic Church, main- 
taining that these gifts were intended to be per- 
petual in the Church. About the same time a com- 
pany of clergymen and laymen of the Church of 
England began to meet for Scripture study on the 
second coming of Christ and the office of the Spirit 
in the Church. In February, 1830, reports came 
from Scotland that the gifts of tongues and healing 
had appeared in a certain Presbyterian family living 

29 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 





near Glasgow. Upon investigation these phenomena 
were declared to be genuine. Similar manifesta- 
tions occurred in Irving’s Church in London. Irving 
encouraged these demonstrations and accepted them 
as confirming his beliefs and preaching. He was 
deposed from the Church of Scotland on the charge 
of heresy. But the movement, of which he was the 
most conspicuous advocate, took shape, and in 1832 
the apostolic office was revived and filled mainly 
with the members of the Anglican Bible study cir- 
cle, above mentioned, who fell in with Irving’s doc- 
trines. The result was the Catholic Apostolic 
Church, found not only in England and Scotland, 
but on the Continent and in the United States and 
Canada. 

The Church recognizes four orders of ministers— 
namely, apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors, 
or “angels.” The gifts of the Holy Spirit can be 
imparted only by the laying on of the hands of these 
apostles. Doctrinally, the Church agrees with other 
evangelical bodies, but its difference lies mainly in 
its insisting upon the spiritual phenomena of the 
early Church. Where there are enough to form a 
congregation, services are held twice a day—at 6 
A.M. and 5 P.M. In the Sabbath services the Lord’s 
Supper is observed with an elaborate ritual. Each 
Church is regarded as complete in itself. 

There are reported by United States census in 
1916 13 ministers, 13 churches, and 2,768 members. 
They are found mainly in the State of New York. 
There are a few churches elsewhere. There is one, 
for example, in Nashville, Tenn. 

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CATHOLICS. 


THE name “Catholic” is associated in the popular 
mind only with the Roman Catholic Church. It 
was originally used to distinguish the Christian 
Church from the Jewish, the latter being restricted 
to a single nation, whereas the former was intended 
for the world. The name has been retained by the 
Church of Rome in agreement with its claim of 
being the successor of the primitive Church; but 
Protestants deny that it is applicable to Rome any 
more than to other Christian bodies. (See “Eastern 
Orthodox Churches” and “Roman Catholics.”) 





CHRISTADELPHIANS. 


THIs is a small but widely scattered body, dating 
from about 1850. John Thomas, M.D., came over 
from England in 1844. He joined the Church of the 
Disciples, but later withdrew and began to publish 
certain views concerning Churches, in which he 
expressed the belief that all denominations were 
apostate Churches. He organized a number of so- 
cieties in this country, Great Britain, and Canada. 
The societies took no name until the time of the 
Civil War, when, alleging conscientious scruples 
against military service, in order to be exempt they 
had to take a name. They chose the name of 
Christadelphians, or “Brothers of Christ.” The sect 
rejects the doctrine of the Trinity, the belief in a 
devil, and personal immortality. They look for the 
millennial reign of Christ, who will take the throne 
of David in Jerusalem. They have no ordained 
ministers. They had in 1916 145 churches and 2,922 
members, found chiefly in Massachusetts, Illinois, 
Virginia, and Texas. 


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CHRISTIAN AND MISSIONARY ALLIANCE 


Tuis is an alliance or union formed in 1916 of cer- 
tain organizations which had been engaged in evan- 
gelistic and missionary work. The movement dates 
back to 1881, when Rev. A. B. Simpson, a Presbyte- 
rian minister in New York City, resigned his charge 
and engaged in evangelistic work among the un- 
churched masses. Asa result of his labors a “Chris- 
tian Alliance’ was formed for home mission work, 
and a “Missionary Alliance” for foreign work. The 
movement has never sought to form itself into a 
distinct denomination, and many of its leaders and 
members are connected with regular denominations. 
The organization gives itself mainly to evangelistic 
work, and is strongly “fundamentalist” in faith, but 
is liberal in the observance of church ordinances and 
forms. Six or seven training schools for evangelistic 
and missionary workers are operated. The Rev. 
Paul Rader is the present national head of the 
Alliance. There are 350 churches, 325 ministers, 
and 10,050 members in affiliation with the organiza- 
tion. 





CHRISTIANS, OR CHRISTIAN CONNEC- 
TION 


Tuts body takes the name simply of “Christians” 
and is often confused with the Disciples of Christ, 
who generally call themselves by the same name; 
but while they agree in many respects, they are in 
other respects widely different. The denomination 
now known as Christians, or (by way of distinction) 


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Christian Connection, grew out of three independ- 
ent movements occurring in other Churches. 

In 1793 Rev. James O’Kelly, with twenty or thirty 
other ministers and about a thousand members, 
withdrew from the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
The defection occurred in Virginia and North Caro- 
lina and grew out of objections to the unrestricted 
appointive power of bishops and the use of creeds 
and disciplines. They first took the name of Repub- 
lican Methodists, but abandoned this title and 
adopted the name of Christians. Closely following 
this movement, but independent of it, Abner Jones, 
a Baptist physician in Vermont, led a secession 
among the Baptists. A Church was formed, taking 
the name of Christian. In 1804 a similar movement 
occurred among the Presbyterians in Kentucky, led 
by Rev. Barton W. Stone, who, with five other min- 
isters, dissolved a presbytery and agreed to be 
known as Christians only. These three movements, 
each unknown to the other, were alike in taking the 
same name and in claiming to take the Scriptures 
alone as their only creed and Christian character 
as the only test of fellowship. As Churches multi- 
plied they became acquainted, and general meet- 
ings and codperation and fellowship developed 
among them. General organizations for promoting 
publishing, educational, and missionary work fol- 
lowed. The organization led by Stone in Kentucky 
finally (about 1831) united with the Disciples, and 
more than fifty Churches were absorbed by this de- 
nomination. In 1854, owing to utterances against 
slavery by a general convention held in Cincinnati, 
the Churches in the South withdrew and formed a 


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separate branch. Since 1894, however, the Southern 
Churches have been represented in the general con- 
vention, and they are now recognized as one body. 

The American Christian Convention, which meets 
every four years, is now the general representative 
body of the Church, having in charge all its general 
interests. Extensive missionary work is carried on 
in the United States, Canada, Japan, and Porto 
Rico. The denomination has about twelve colleges 
and seminaries, and a publishing house at Dayton, 
Ohio. Doctrinally, the Christians agree in accept- 
ing the Bible as their only rule of faith. They have 
never formulated a confession or statement of faith. 
They believe in the avoidance of sectarian names 
and, like the Disciples, advocate the union of all 
denominations. But, unlike the Disciples, they hold 
that Christian character is the only test of ‘Church 
membership or fellowship. They allow large liberty 
of conscience and insist upon the right of private 
judgment in all matters of theological opinion or 
practice. They generally baptize by immersion, but 
sprinkling is allowed among them, and they will 
admit to communion and to Church membership 
those who have been baptized by affusion in other 
Churches without rebaptizing. They are congrega- 
tional in government, but have annual conferences, 
which receive and ordain ministers, but which have 
no legislative powers. 

The latest statistical reports show them to have 
1,171 churches and 118,737 members. The member- 
ship is largest in Ohio (25,000) and Indiana (20,- 
000), in the North, and in North Carolina (8,000) 
and Virginia (5,000), in the South, 


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CHRISTIAN CATHOLIC CHURCH {N ZION 
(DOWIE) 


Tuis body was organized in Chicago in 1896 by 
John Alexander Dowie. Dowie had been a Congre- 
gational minister in Australia, but, becoming con- 
vinced that he possessed the power of divine heal- 
ing, withdrew from that communion and established 
a “healing temple” in Melbourne. He came to the 
United States in 1888, first teaching his doctrines 
on the Pacific Coast, but he later made Chicago the 
center of his activities. He gathered a considerable 
following and organized them into a Church. In 
1900 he founded Zion City on the shores of Lake 
Michigan, north of Chicago, which soon became a 
thriving city, peopled entirely by Dowie’s adherents. 
A college was established and many business en- 
terprises, including a large lace industry; and over 
all a theocratic government was set up, with Dowie 
at the head. An extensive propaganda was begun. 
Dowie became the idol of his followers. He en- 
titled himself the “First Apostle” and “Elijah IIT.” 
In 1903-04 Dowie led missionary campaigns in Lon- 
don and New York, with but little success in Lon- 
don and with disastrous results in New York. His 
pompous claims and bitter antagonism to other 
Churches won him only ridicule. His followers be- 
came demoralized, and Dowie returned embittered 
in spirit. He found criticism and opposition to him 
at Zion City on account of his financial mismanage- 
ment of the city’s affairs. Charges of immorality 
were also made. In 1905 Dowie visited Mexico and 


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Texas, partly to recover his failing health and partly 
to look out a location for another colony. But dur- 
ing his absence he was deposed from the office of 
general overseer at Zion City, and Wilbur Glenn 
Voliva was chosen in his place. A receiver was ap- 
pointed for Zion City, and the colony was found to ~ 
be bankrupt. 

The Christian Catholics, as Dowie named his 
communion, hold the generally accepted principles 
of Christianity, and the sacraments are observed; 
but prominence is given to the doctrine of faith- 
healing. Baptism is by trine immersion. A conse- 
cration service usually closes their meetings. At 
the head of the Church organization is the general 
overseer, then overseers for smaller organizations. 
Missionaries are called the “seventies,” who go out 
two and two distributing tracts, etc. The move- 
ment had at one time (or claimed) 40,000 adherents. 
According to the best obtainable figures, at the pres- 
ent time there are not one-fourth of that number. 
The United States census figures for 1906 (the year 
following the disaster for the organization) are 
5,865 members. 


CHRISTIAN SCIENTISTS 


Tue Church of Christ, Scientist, is founded upon 
a system of philosophy, religion, and medicine for- 
mulated by Mrs. Mary Baker G. Eddy, a full ex- 
position of which is given in her book, “Science and 
Health, with Key to the Scriptures.” Mrs. Eddy 
was born in New Hampshire in 1821. In her girl- 


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hood she joined the Congregational Church, the 
Church of her parents. Her educational advantages 
were limited, and, if the testimony of many of her 
classmates is true, she availed herself but poorly of 
her school days. She claims, however, to have had 
superior advantages from private tutors and to have 
learned Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. Critics outside 
the ranks of her followers declare that her unedited 
writings display the poorest literary gifts. 

As a girl Mrs. Eddy was weak in body and hys- 
terical, and at no time in her life was she ever far 
removed from physical invalidism. In early woman- 
hood she seems to have attracted some attention 
aS a mesmeric and spiritualistic subject. She was 
married three times, once divorced, and in other 
ways her career was a checkered one. According 
to a friendly authority, “her whole life up to the age 
of fifty had been an utter failure, as the world 
viewed it and as many of her more intimate ac- 
quaintances estimated it; but one may search his- 
tory from the beginning and have difficulty in 
matching Mrs. Eddy’s performance between the 
ages of fifty and eighty in making a million people 
accept her at her own valuation.” 

In 1862 Mrs. Eddy, at that time the divorced 
widow of Dr. Patterson, her second husband, visited 
Dr. Quimby, a mental healer (or popularly called 
so) at Portland, Me. She was in such condition as 
that she “had to be helped upstairs.” She claimed 
to have been healed and became a student and 
advocate of Quimby’s teachings and methods. 
Many investigators declare that Mrs. Eddy obtained 


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her doctrines from Quimby and that she obtained 
from him—some say purloined—manuscripts and 
notes on his work which became the basis of her 
books. Her followers undertake to refute these 
charges, and the founder herself impliedly asserts 
that Christian Science came to her as a revelation. 
In a letter written by Mrs. Eddy to Dr. Quimby 
in 1863 (from letters in possession of Quimby’s son 
and quoted in Georgine Milmine’s “Life of Mrs. 
Eddy’) the following statement is made: “I am to 
all who see me a living wonder and a living monu- 
ment of your power. My explanation of your cura- 
tive principle surprises people, especially those 
whose minds are all matter.” From this and other 
evidence it appears that Mrs. Eddy was indebted to 
Dr. Quimby for a cure and that he was indebted to 
her for an explanation of it, though it is not a mat- 
ter of record that the Doctor ever acknowledged the 
debt. Dr. Quimby died in 1866. Later in the same 
year Mrs. Eddy announced her discovery of “the 
first purely metaphysical system of healing since 
the days of the apostles.” 

She began teaching and practicing her system, 
but for a number of years she gained adherents but 
slowly. In 1875 her book appeared, the first edition 
of “Science and Health,” and the following year she 
organized the first Christian Science Association 
with six pupils. In 1879 she organized the First 
Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, composed 
of twenty-six members, with herself as pastor. This 
became the “Mother Church” of the movement. It 
now occupies a building costing more than $2,000,- 


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ooo and, according to popular report, has 45,000 
members. Other Churches were formed, called 
branches; and while the Mother Church exercises 
no superior authority over other congregations, they 
usually follow the customs and services observed 
in the Boston Church. The cult has found its fol- 
lowing mainly in the cities. New York City has 
twelve Christian Science Churches, the First Church 
congregation being housed in a temple costing more 
than $1,000,000. Chicago has nine organizations. 
Churches are found in nearly all the larger cities of 
the United States and Canada, also in London and 
Manchester, England, and Edinburgh, Scotland. 
There are Christian Science congregations also in 
most of the European countries, in Australia, South 
America, Mexico, and elsewhere. 

Mrs. Eddy’s book, “Science and Health,” purports 
to reveal the science of God, of life, and of man. 
God is the only reality. All mind, life, truth, love, 
goodness—and throughout her book these words 
are capitalized and apparently endowed with as 
much personality as she ever attributes to God— 
are but manifestations or reflections of God. 
“Man is inseparable from God,” but it is denied that 
he is part of God; he, too, is a “reflection of God.” 
It is denied that the principles of healing set forth 
in this system are the same as mental healing, faith 
cure, or healing by prayer. Sickness and all the ills 
and woes of life, including death, are unreal and 
“are to be overcome by spiritual understanding of 
divine reality.” But the whole system is extremely 
metaphysical and is admittedly confusing and diffi- 


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cult to those who have not embraced it. As a “key” 
to the Scriptures, one does not have to read far in 
Mrs. Eddy’s book to discover, if he is familiar with 
the Bible, that he is here in a strange land. Chris- 
tian Science subverts every evangelical doctrine and 
robs the sacred Book of all its majesty and mean- 
ing. Mrs. Eddy claims to have read the Scriptures 
“through a higher than mortal sense.” But, in the 
language of H. C. Sheldon (“Christian Science, So 
Called”), “she merely uses the Scriptural texts as 
pegs upon which to hang her stock phrases. Her 
exegetical notes might just as well have been at- 
tached to almost any other writings, say to pas- 
sages of the Gilgamesch Epic, written in old Baby- 
lon, or to chapters of the Upanishads, composed in 
ancient India.” ‘Science and Health,” first sent 
forth as a key to the Scriptures, has been elevated 
above them, both in the assumptions of its author 
and in the veneration of her disciples. Mrs. Eddy 
ordained the Bible and “Science and Health” as the 
“impersonal pastor” of her flock; but in Christian 
Science Churches the reader of “Science and Health” 
is called the “First Reader” and takes precedence 
over the reader of the Bible, who is designated the 
“Second Reader.” In the Christian Science Church 
its founder did not scruple to displace the sacrament 
of the Lord’s Supper with a “Galilean Breakfast,” 
putting into it a meaning of her own. 

The Christian Science propaganda is carried on 
through a Board of Lectureship, attached to the 
Mother Church. Persons who are qualified to teach 
are given degrees, B.S.C. or D.S.C. (Bachelor 
or Doctor of Christian Science), and they are sent 


40 


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) 


out to deliver public lectures on the doctrines, 
There is a well organized and financed press bureau, 
which usually provides for the publication at length 
of these lectures in the press of the city where they 
are delivered. The Sunday services of the congre- 
gations consist of readings from the Bible and 
“Science and Health,” hymns, prayers, and the 
benediction. The midweek service is devoted to 
testimonies and experiences. 

It is one of the rules of the denomination to give 
out no figures as to membership. The last mem- 
bership figures were published in 1907, when there 
were 85,096 members. Recent reports give 3,598 
ministers and 1,799 churches. In a general way 
it is claimed that the Church now has a million 
adherents throughout the world. The Clerk of 
the Mother Church gives out an estimate of an 
increase of about one hundred organizations, or 
new societies, a year throughout the world. Of 
the membership, females are in the majority in the 
ratio of three to one. 





CHRISTIAN UNION CHURCHES ~~ 


THEsE are called the Independent Churches of 
Christ in Christian Union and date their origin from 
the period of the Civil War. The movement leading 
to their formation began in Ohio under the leader- 
ship of Rev. J. V. B. Flack, a minister of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, and arose in opposition to 
the enthusiasm and activity displayed among the 
Churches in support of the war. “Political preach- 
ing, parading,” and patriotic demonstrations in sup- 


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port of the government were condemned. Members 
of many Churches who disapproved of the war spirit 
in the Church were gathered into separate congrega- 
tions. The first Church of the new denomination 
was organized in Illinois in 1863 or 1864. A con- 
vention was held in 1864 at Columbus, Ohio, where 
representatives from various denominations gath- 
ered and laid the foundation for the new Church. 
After the war closed, the Churches turned their at- 
tention to efforts to promote Christian unity. They 
occupy at the present time a position in doctrine, 
practice, and purpose similar to the Churches of 
the Christian Connection. They have 228 ministers, 
235 churches, and 13,893 members. Their strength 
is mainly in the State of their origin, Ohio, but 
they are represented also in the States of Missouri, 
Indiana, and Iowa. 





CHURCHES OF GOD (THE WINEBREN- 
NERIANS) 


Tuts denomination was founded by John Wine- 
brenner (hence sometimes called Winebrennerians), 
who had been previously a pastor of the German 
Reformed Church at Harrisburg, Pa. Winebren- 
ner’s earnest preaching, in which he denounced all 
worldly amusements, produced a revival in and 
around Harrisburg. Its progress was opposed by 
his own people, and he was brought under charges 
by officials of his denomination. Winebrenner 
severed his relations with his charge and his 
Church, but continued to preach and to lead in the | 
revival. Other ministers in sympathy with him 


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met with him in 1830, and they adopted a basis of 
a new Church organization. The leading principles 
of the denomination as adopted at that time are: 
(1) The believers in any given place according to 
the divine order constitute one body, and these are 
God’s household, or family, and should be known 
as the Church of God; (2) the divisions into sects 
and parties under human names and creeds is con- 
trary to the New Testament; (3) the Scriptures, 
without note or comment, constitute the sole rule 
of faith and practice; and (4) there are three ordi- 
nances binding upon Christians—immersion in 
water in the name of the Trinity, washing the dis- 
ciples’ feet, and partaking of bread and wine in com- 
memoration of the sufferings and death of Christ. 

The organization of the Church consists of elder- 
ships, or conferences, of which there are seventeen, 
found in as many States. There is a general elder- 
ship, composed of delegates from the lower elder- 
ships, which meets quadrennially and has charge of 
the general interests of the denomination. In local 
affairs the Churches are presbyterian in govern- 
ment; but pastors are appointed to the various 
charges by the annual elderships. In doctrine the 
Churches generally hold Arminian and premille- 
narian views. The body maintains three colleges (at 
Findlay, Ohio, Fort Scott, Kans., and Barkeyville, 
Pa.) and a publishing house at Harrisburg, Pa. 
Extensive home missionary work is carried on, and 
missionaries are at work in India and other foreign 
fields. It has an active woman’s missionary society. 

Report for 1916: Ministers, 434; churches, 484; 
members, 28,033. 


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CHURCH OF GOD AND SAINTS OF CHRIST 
(COLORED) 


THESE are sometimes called the “Black Jews,” on 
account of their fancied claim of being the de- 
scendants of the lost tribes. It is held that the lat- 
ter were originally a black people. The sect owes 
its origin to William S. Crowdy, who claimed to be 
called of God as a prophet. He founded his Church 
in Topeka, Kans., in 1897. The system of doctrine 
is presented in “Crowdy’s Manual,” or “The Bible 
Story Revealed.” The Jewish Passover is annually 
celebrated with a mingling of Jewish and Christian 
rites. The sect reports IoI ministers, 94 churches, 
and 3,311 members. 


CHURCHES OF THE LIVING GOD 
(COLORED) 

BEARING this name are three groups of negro 
churches, found mainly in Texas. They are: (1) 
The Church of the Living God, organized about 
1908, reporting 27 churches and 1,743 members. (2) 
Church of the Living God, Christian Workers for 
Fellowship, organized in Arkansas in 1889, having 
churches now in Tennessee, Arkansas, and Texas, 
with a “chief” residing at Memphis, Tenn. This 
branch corresponds mainly with the Baptists in 
faith and practice. The denomination has a semina- 
ry at Ponta, Tex. Local organizations are called 
“temples,” of which there are sixty in existence, 
with 9,626 members. (3) Church of the Living God, 

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General Assembly—a secession from the body last 
mentioned above, with Methodistic leanings. Or- 
ganized in 1908. Headquarters at Waco, Tex., the 
“Jerusalem” of the tribes. There are six churches 
and 266 members of this body. 





CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM 
(SWEDENBORGIAN) 


Tue doctrines set forth in the writings of Eman- 
uel Swedenborg (born in Stockholm, Sweden, in 
1688; died in London in 1772) form a basis of the 
union of his followers, who are better known as 
Swedenborgians. The first steps toward organiza- 
tion began in London in 1782, when Robert Hind- 
marsh, a printer, gathered a few associates into a 
society for reading and studying the works of 
Swedenborg. This association gradually took on 
the forms of a religious society. The result was the 
Church of the New Jerusalem, named after the New 
Jerusalem of the Apocalypse. A general conference 
was formed, which has met annually since 1815. 
In 1906 7,256 Swedenborgians were enrolled in 
Great Britain. Many who are enumerated as 
Swedenborg’s followers have not severed their 
membership with other Churches, which is also 
true in this country. 

The first Swedenborgian society organized in 
America was in 1792 at Baltimore. The various so- 
cieties and Churches in the United States and Cana- 
da are associated in a general convention, which 
meets annually. There are also State associations. 
In government the New Jerusalem Church is partly 


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congregational and partly episcopal, each local so- 
ciety governing its own affairs; but there are gen- 
eral pastors, corresponding to bishops in episcopal 
Churches. The service is largely liturgical, con- 
forming to the Book of Worship published by the 
general convention. 

Swedenborg’s doctrines grew out of his experience 
in which he professed to have had his spiritual 
senses opened. His experience was unique in that 
he did not claim to have communication with spirits 
nor to have received visions or revelations; but he 
professed through all the later years of his life that 
he was a dweller within the spiritual world; that, 
being dead on the side of this world, he was in con- 
stant association with spiritual beings as one of 
them. According to Swedenborg, the Church which 
Christ established came to an end in 1757, and he 
testifies that he witnessed the last general judg- 
ment at that time in the spiritual world. A new 
dispensation was introduced, the beginning of the 
Church of the New Jerusalem, prophesied in the 
Revelation ; and of this dispensation and Church the 
writings of Swedenborg contain the doctrines. 

There are now two Churches of the New Jeru- 
salem, the main body being known as the General 
Convention of the New Jerusalem, having 87 min- 
isters, 92 churches, and 6,176 members. The second 
is designated the General Church of the New Jeru- 
salem, with 24 ministers, 15 churches, and 890 mem- 
bers, 


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COMMUNISTIC SOCIETIES 


THESE embrace all societies or religious bodies 
observing the communal life. Those now in ex- 
istence in the United States and that have, or began 
with, a religious basis are given. They are as fol- 
lows: 

The Amana Society.—There are several organiza- 
tions of this society which call themselves the 
“True Inspiration Congregations.” They are located 
at Amana, Ia. Immigrants from Germany founded 
the society near Buffalo, N. Y., whence they re- 
moved during the next ten years to their present 
location. The community was incorporated in 
1859 with provisions that all property should be 
held in common; that agriculture, manufacturing, 
and trade should furnish the means of sustenance: 
and that the surplus should be applied to com- 
munal improvements and for educational and benev- 
olent purposes. Persons joining the society sur- 
render all property and all claim to wages and are 
promised in return board and dwelling, support in 
old age and sickness, and are given an annual al- 
lowance for clothing and other expenses. It was 
formerly held that the person at the head of the 
society was under the direct inspiration of God. 
The temporal government is vested in thirteen trus- 
tees, who are elected annually by the male members 
of the society. Baptism is not practiced, and the 
Lord’s Supper is observed only when inspired direc- 
tion is given. Religious services are held every day 
in the week, in which Bible study and inquisitorial 
examination of the members are prominent. The 
society has one church and 1,400 members, 


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The Shakers, or the Millennial Church.—The 
Shakers were the first to organize communistic so- 
cieties in this country, and for more than a century 
these communistic settlements have been main- 
tained among them. Their first community was 
organized at Mount Lebanon, N. Y., in 1792. This 
is also the largest and is. recognized as the “central 
executive” of all the Shaker societies. The Shakers 
were at first a sect of the English Quakers. They 
appeared about 1747 as a result of a revival in 
which, because of their bodily agitations when 
under religious excitement, they came to be called 
the “Shaking Quakers.” Ann Lee became the 
leader of the Shakers. She professed to have re- 
ceived revelations “of the way of redemption,” pro- 
claimed herself a reincarnation of the Messiah, and 
came to be accepted as such. She came to America 
in 1774 with a small company of followers and es- 
tablished a Church at Watervliet, N. Y. Ann Lee 
died in 1784, and three years later the society was 
placed on a communal basis. According to the 
Shaker doctrines, the religious history of mankind 
is divided into four cycles. The first included the 
antediluvians ; the second, the Jews up to the com- 
ing of Christ; the third, from the time of Christ to 
the appearing of Ann Lee; the fourth and last is 
the present dispensation, and the Shaker Church 
is the embodiment of Christ’s kingdom on earth. 
The Shakers reject the doctrine of the Trinity, hold- 
ing that God is dual, male and female; that he ap: 
peared in Christ as male and in Ann Lee as female. 
They also deny the resurrection of the body and the 


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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 
oR are et er as sa 


atonement. Spiritualism is a prominent doctrine 
among them, also celibacy. In their religious serv- 
ices exhortations by both men and women march- 
ing and dancing to music are prominent. In the 
ministry and in all the affairs of the Church men 
and women are on an equal footing. The Shakers 
have fourteen societies, 30 ministers, and 1,250 mem- 
bers. 





CONGREGATIONALISTS 


THE Congregational body may be justly entitled 
the mother of Churches. From it have proceeded 
the Baptists, Unitarians, Universalists, Adventists, 
Christian Scientists, and other bodies; and the 
parent Church still remains the predominant Prot- 
estant denomination in all the New England States 
except Rhode Island. 

The Mayflower, landing at Plymouth, Mass., in 
1620, brought the first Congregational Church to 
American shores. While all the Pilgrims were not 
members of that Church, the larger part of them 
had been members in Holland; and upon a division 
of the Church in that country, a part remaining and 
a part emigrating to America, it was agreed that 
each part thereafter should constitute a complete 
Church, so that the Mayflower brought over a com- 
pletely organized Church which transplanted itself 
in America. The Church in Holland had been made 
up of English Congregationalists, who had fled 
thither to escape persecutions. English Congrega- 
tionalism dates from 1580, the first organization 
being formed in that year at Norwich by Robert 


4 49 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 





Browne, who had become dissatisfied with the 
Anglican Church, in which he was a minister. This 
body was scattered by persecutions. Other 
Churches of this system met a similar fate. The 
Church which was afterwards represented in the 
Mayflower colony was organized at Nottingham- 
shire in 1606. Two of the members of this con- 
gregation were John Robinson, who became its 
pastor, and William Bradford, afterwards Governor 
of the Plymouth Colony. The Nottinghamshire 
Church was broken up in 1608, and its members 
fled to Holland and reorganized. This Church 
prospered, remained harmonious, and was distinct- 
ly Congregational, in all essential particulars like 
the Congregational Churches of the present time. 

The history of Congregationalism in America for 
two centuries following the landing of the Pilgrims 
is closely interwoven with the history of New Eng- 
land, where from the first it was the dominant 
Church. The Puritan colonists of 1628-30, mem- 
bers of the Anglican Church at home, found Con- 
gregationalism so well adapted to their new condi- 
tions in America that they adopted it, and until 
1700 there were hardly any other Churches in Mas- 
sachusetts and Connecticut. Congregationalism be- 
came practically the “State Church” of these colo- 
nies. Political suffrage was for a time limited to 
Church members, and until the early part of the 
nineteenth century the Church was supported by 
taxation. This condition was changed in Connecti- 
cut in 1816 and in Massachusetts in 1833. 

In 1801 a plan of union was entered into with the 


50 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 


Presbyterians concerning the formation of Churches 
in new settlements in the West. Under it Congre- 
gationalists moving from New England to other 
States usually entered Presbyterian Churches. 
Until the abrogation of this agreement, in 1852, 
Congregationalism was confined almost entirely to 
New England. The antislavery position of the de- 
nomination closed the Southern States to it before 
the war. Since 1852 the Church has grown rapidly 
in many of the Western States. Their numbers in 
the South are still small, and their work in this sec- 
tion is confined largely to the negroes. 

In doctrine the Congregationalists agree substan- 
tially with all evangelical faiths. In their early his- 
tory they held the Calvinistic position, and one of 
their early creedal statements was the Westminster 
Confession. In 1883 a commission appointed by the 
national council formulated a Confession, consist- 
ing of twelve articles. It is more evangelical in its 
statements than the older creed. But no Congre- 
gational Church is obliged to accept any creed or 
declaration of faith. Each Church may adopt its 
own creed, and many Churches do. In polity the 
underlying principles have been stated as being 
(1) the independence of the local Church and (2) 
the fellowship of the Churches. Stated in another 
way by another authority, the characteristic fea- 
tures of Congregational polity are freedom and 
fellowship—a freedom which leaves each Church to 
manage its own affairs, a fellowship which unites 
all the Churches for mutual care and codperate 
action. In accordance with the principle of auton- 


SI 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 


ee 





omy, each Church may draw up its own creed and 
covenant, formulate its order of worship, elect and 
install its pastor and other officers. It is common, 
however, in calling or dismissing a pastor, in form- 
ing new Churches, in cases of discipline, and in 
questions arising between Churches, to refer these 
matters to a council composed of pastors and mem- 
bers of neighboring Churches. Churches are asso- 
ciated in local and State associations and in the 
national council. The national council was formed 
in 1871 and meets triennially. It has no legislative 
nor judicial power over the Churches, but adminis- 
ters the general missionary and other interests. At 
its meeting in 1913 a new constitution was adopted, 
under which the general agencies of the denomina- 
tion are correlated and placed under the advisory 
direction of a commission. 

The Congregationalists have always been in the 
forefront in missionary and educational work. A 
missionary society was formed in Connecticut as 
early as 1798 and in Massachusetts a year later. 
The National Congregational Home Mission So- 
ciety was formed in 1826 and has been active in ex- 
tending Churches in new settlements. The Ameri- 
can Missionary Association, organized in 1846, has 
done its work chiefly among the negroes of the 
South. The oldest foreign mission society in this 
country is the American Board of Commissioners 
for Foreign Missions, founded in 1810. It has 
planted Congregational missions in India, Turkey, 
Japan, China, Micronesia, Austria, Africa, Spain, 
and Mexico. 

Congregationalists founded Harvard and Yale 


52 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 


Universities, and these institutions were long en- 
gaged mainly in equipping men for the ministry. 
The Unitarian controversy early in the nineteenth 
century, resulting in the loss of thirty-nine Churches 
to the Congregationalists and the division of nearly 
one hundred others, wrested Harvard from the con- 
trol of the denomination. Andover Theological 
Seminary was established to fill its place. Other 
seminaries are the Atlanta, Bangor, Chicago, Hart- 
ford, Oberlin, Pacific (Berkeley, Cal.), and Yale. 
Including these and three important woman’s col- 
leges, the denomination has founded more than 
forty higher institutions of learning. 

The Congregationalists in the United States have 
5,781 ministers, 5,873 churches, and 838,271 mem- 
bers. There are about 14,500 Congregationalist 
churches in the world, having nearly 1,500,000 com- 
municants. The leading Congregationalist States, 
by the U.S. Religious Census of 1916, are: Massa- 
chusetts, 133,509; Connecticut, 71,188; New York, 
65,021; and Illinois, 57,926. The leading Congrega- 
tionalist cities are: New York, 25,230; Boston, 15,- 
458; Chicago, 15,448. Congregationalist member- 
ship in the Southern States is as follows: 


LAE ETE Ree Seren A.a225 8 NOttn Carolinas, os. sacueo 
PAOLO ARS ote fake on 6 2 Sloe Oklahoma). opens hea ene 
SREOT OIA Flint 02's 6,219 ae South! Carolinas) 22; 501 
SEES 9 712° “Tennessee } 8.0). 2 ols o« 2,185 
PERSIIR TE eo Xe a ees UesOS HASUeZAS, vo deen eb hers 2 3TC 
Mississippi.......... STASarVircinia tacos Sem 0 





DISCIPLES OF CHRIST 


THE movement resulting in the organization of 
the Church of the Disciples is often referred to 


53 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 





among themselves as the restoration movement— 
not a reformation, but a restoration of primitive 
Christianity. Characteristic expressions of their 
early preaching were: “The ancient order of 
things!” “Where the Bible speaks, we speak; where 
the Bible is silent, we are silent ;” “A thus saith the 
Lord, either in express terms or by approved prece- 
dent, for every article of faith and item of religious 
practice;” and “Nothing ought to be received into 
the faith or worship of the Church nor be made a 
test of communion among Christians that is not as 
old as the New Testament.” 

Many of these declarations are attributed to 
Thomas Campbell, an Irish Seceder Presbyterian 
minister, who came to America in 1807. He was 
immediately assigned work by his Church in Wash- 
ington County, Pa. His fraternity with other de- 
nominations and his indifference to the usages of 
his own, as instanced by his inviting members of 
other Presbyterian bodies to the communion, 
brought upon him the censure of his brethren. He 
withdrew from the Seceder Church, but continued 
to preach, mainly in the homes of the people. In 
1809 he formed the “Christian Association of Wash- 
ington,” and a meetinghouse was built. Campbell 
issued a “Declaration and Address,” in which he 
explained that “this society by no means considers 
itself a Church, nor do the members consider them- 
selves as standing in that relation, but merely as 
voluntary advocates of Church reformation.” The 
Declaration protested against the “bitter jarrings 
and janglings of a party spirit,” against human 
Opinions and creeds in the Church, and announced 


54 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 


the purpose of returning to the original pattern laid 
down in the new Testament. 

In the same year Thomas Campbell was joined 
by his son, Alexander, from Ireland, who adopted 
his views. The father made some efforts to unite 
the “Association” with the Presbyterians, but his 
overtures were rejected. The son showed himself 
of a different spirit and purpose and henceforth be- 
came the champion of the cause advocated in the 
Declaration and Address. “A more aggressive 
leader was needed,” says M. M. Davis (“History 
of the Restoration Movement”), “and the father 
instinctively stepped to the rear and threw his man- 
tle over the shoulders of his son.” The father laid 
the foundation, but the son built thereon. 

In 1811 the first Church of the Christian Asso- 
ciation was organized at Brush Run, Washington 
County, Pa., with twenty-nine members. Alexander 
Campbell was ordained to the ministry in this 
Church in 1812. During the same year the father 
and son, having previously surrendered their belief 
in infant baptism, changed their views on the mode 
of baptism, and they and their families were im- 
mersed by a Baptist minister. This change brought 
the Baptists into sympathy with them, and upon 
invitation of the Redstone Baptist Association, and 
“being still anxious to avoid every appearance of 
forming a new denomination,’ the Brush Run 
Church entered this association in 1813. Baptist 
churches were thrown open to Alexander Camp- 
bell, and his aggressive presentation of his views 
gained him a wide hearing. He held debates with 
Pedobaptists in which his Baptist brethren were 


55 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 


his enthusiastic supporters. “But he was candid 
with them and warned them against a possible fu- 
ture.” He is reported as having addressed to a 
company of Baptist preachers the statement that 
“I have nearly as much against you Baptists as I 
have against the Presbyterians.” 

In 1823 Mr. Campbell began publishing the 
Christian Baptist, in which he set forth views which 
brought upon him widespread opposition among the 
Baptists. He was tried for heresy and acquitted; 
but Baptist Churches began to disfellowship his 
followers. Asa result the Brush Run Church with- 
drew from the Redstone Association and joined the 
Mahoning Association, in Eastern Ohio. The Ma- 
honing Association became so leavened with Camp- 
bell’s teachings that it disbanded, and the Churches 
joined the new movement almost in a body. The 
rupture with the Baptists was brought about, ac- 
cording to Vedder, a Baptist historian, on account 
of the practice of baptism “unto the remission of 
sins,’ which Campbell was advocating. Davis, the 
historian of the Disciples, agrees, but mentions 
other differences, as those involving the subjects of 
conversion, creeds, the administrator in baptism, 
the use of the Lord’s Supper, the reception of mem- 
bers, and the call to the ministry. The same au- 
thor says: “‘No exact day can be named as the time 
of this sad occurrence [the separation], for it came 
about gradually and consumed several years in its 
consummation ; but we may date it 1830. After this 
the followers of Mr. Campbell were called Chris- 
tians, or Disciples of Christ, or the Christian 
Church, the legal title being the Church of Christ 


56 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 


at such and such a place.” The names commonly 
applied by outsiders and opposers of the movement 
were “restorationers” and “Campbellites.” 

Mr. Campbell was early assisted in spreading his 
views by a great number of preachers, many of 
them recruits from other Churches, mainly from 
the Baptist, and some of them raised up by the 
movement. The most famous of these was Rev. 
Walter Scott, an Ohio evangelist, through whose 
influence the practice of baptism “for the remission 
of sins” began about 1827. The new doctrines 
found their readiest acceptance in Ohio, Kentucky, 
Western Virginia (afterwards West Virginia), In- 
diana, Missouri, and Tennessee. And in this terri- 
tory “not only individuals by the hundreds and 
thousands were saved, but often entire congrega- 
tions swung into line. . . . Baptist congrega- 
tions would vote out the Philadelphia Confession 
and vote in the New Testament in its place. And 
not only Baptists, but Presbyterians, Universalists, 
Lutherans, Methodists, and Episcopalians, in large 
numbers were reached. The Deerfield Methodist 
Church came in as a whole.” During this period 
the forces abroad were ably assisted by Mr. Camp- 
bell, not only in preaching and debating tours, but 
by his editorial work on the Christian Baptist. 
“This paper kept up a raking fire all along the line 
of religious discussions, but it was specially severe 
at certain points. One of these was the clergy, and 
he handled them without gloves. He characterized 
them as hireling priests, textuary divines, and scrap 
doctors. . . . He scored them for their clerical 
dress, their sanctimonious speech, their long-faced 


57 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 


piety, their devotion to party, and their claim to a 
special divine call.” 

The largest and most important accession in one 
body to the Campbell movement was the union with 
it of Rev. Barton W. Stone and some fifty Churches 
of his following in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio, 
the union occurring in 1831. The Stone movement 
began in Kentucky in 1804, when, as a result of 
great revivals in that section, Stone, with a few 
other ministers, left the Presbyterian Church and 
formed an organization, taking the name of Chris- 
tian. Mr. Campbell’s biographer, Dr. Richardson, 
contrasts the two parties to the union as follows: 
“In one [the Stone party] the protracted meeting 
was prominent, and converts were multiplied; in 
the other the mists and clouds of theological specu- 
lation were dissipated, and the Church of the apos- 
tolic days was being brought back into view.” 

For the next thirty-five years, or until his death, 
in 1866, Alexander Campbell was the foremost 
figure in the movement. He traveled thousands of 
miles, preached, lectured, held public discussions, 
and was a voluminous writer, his publications num- 
bering some sixty volumes. He founded Bethany 
College, West Virginia, in 1840, “with the Bible 
as a textbook.” In 1847 he traveled and preached 
in Great Britain, where he found Churches called 
Churches of Christ, of independent origin, but hold- 
ing much in common with his views. 

One of Campbell’s books, “The Christian Sys- 
tem,” is the best-known treatise on the doctrinal 
position of the Disciples; but a tract entitled “Our 
Position,” by Isaac Errett, is held to be the best 


58 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 


brief statement of their faith. This authority, after 
naming the points of agreement with other evan- 
gelical bodies, sets out the particulars in which the 
Disciples differ. These are: 1. On the division of 
the Scriptures. The Disciples hold that, while both 
Testaments are inspired, the Old Testament was 
authority for the Jews; the New Testament is now 
an authority for Christians. 2. The Disciples re- 
pudiate the theological and philosophical specula- 
tions of Trinitarians and Unitarians and reject all 
unauthorized forms of speech on questions which 
transcend human reason, insisting only on the 
words given in the Scriptures concerning the 
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 3. They repudiate 
all human authoritative creeds. “We do not object 
to publishing what we believe and practice, but we 
refuse to accept any such statement as authoritative 
or as a test of fellowship.” 4. “With us the divinity 
and Christhood of Jesus is the creed of Christianity, 
and we demand no other faith in order to baptism 
and Church membership. In matters of opinion, 
touching which the Bible is either silent or obscure, 
we allow the largest liberty.” 5. “While recogniz- 
ing the agency of the Holy Spirit in conversion, we 
repudiate all theories of spiritual operations and all 
theories which rule out the Word of God as the in- 
strument of regeneration and conversion or which 
regard regeneration as a miracle, leading men to 
seek for evidence of acceptance with God in super- 
natural tokens rather than in the definite and un- 
changeable testimonies.and promises of the gospel.” 
6. “We insist on the meaning of baptism, according 
to the divine testimonies, that it is for the remission 


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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 


of sins. Concerning the Lord’s Supper, we invest 
it not with the awfulness of a sacrament, but regard 
it as a memorial feast and keep it on every Lord’s 
day, recognizing neither open nor close com- 
munion.” 7. “The Church of Christ—not sects— 
is a divine institution. We do not recognize sects, 
with sectarian names and symbols, as branches of 
the Church of Christ, but as unscriptural and anti- 
scriptural and therefore to be abandoned for the 
one Church of God which the New Testament re- 
veals. That God has a people among these sects 
we believe and call on them to come out from all 
party organizations. We urge the Word of God 
against human creeds, faith in Christ against faith 
in systems of theology, obedience to Christ rather 
than to Church authority, the Church of Christ in 
place of sects, the promises of the gospel instead of 
dreams, visions, and marvelous experiences as evi- 
dences of pardon.” On the subject of the design of 
baptism this author explains that “regeneration 
must be so far accomplished before baptism that the 
subject is changed in heart, and in faith and peni- 
tence must have yielded up his heart to Christ, 
otherwise baptism is nothing but an empty form. 
But forgiveness is something distinct from regen- 
eration; forgiveness is an act of the sovereign, not 
a change of the sinner’s heart; it needs to be offered 
in a sensible and tangible form, such that the sin- 
ner Can seize it and appropriate it. . . . In bap- 
tism, therefore, the sinner appropriates what the 
mercy of God has provided and offered in the gos- 
pel.” 

In point of Church government, the Disciples 


60 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 





agree with the Congregationalists and Baptists, 
with the exception that the distinction between 
clergy and laity is not known. They have elders, 
or bishops, deacons, and evangelists; but in the 
absence of a minister the members meet in worship, 
observe the Lord’s Supper, and any member may 
administer baptism. No ecclesiastical courts are 
recognized, but it is now becoming somewhat gen- 
eral to refer cases of discipline to a committee for 
final decision. Churches are organized into district, 
State, and national conventions; not for discussion 
or decisions in matters of doctrine or discipline, but 
only for cooperation in the benevolent work of the 
denomination. 

The history of the Disciples has not been without 
controversies within its own ranks. The slavery 
question seriously threatened the integrity of the 
body, but it came through the war without a di- 
vision. The communion question, as to whether 
unimmersed persons should be invited to the Lord’s 
table, was long a subject of controversy. The more 
general conclusion reached, though it was not unani- 
mous, was that indicated above, that “we neither 
invite nor exclude.” Another subject of contro- 
versy, and which proved more serious than any 
other in its consequences, was the question of in- 
strumental music in the churches. The differences 
on this subject reached an acute stage about 1870. 
Those who opposed the organ in worship generally 
also opposed missionary societies. Feeling ran 
high, and hundreds of congregations became di- 
vided. The division has never been healed, but 
rather have the parties in this controversy grown 


61 


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wider apart. “The rupture at this point,” says 
Davis, “is the most serious matter yet encountered 
in the plea for Christian union. It shows our in- 
ability to fully illustrate this glorious plea.” The 
two parties resulting from this division are now 
generally known by the name of the Church of 
Christ, or the Conservatives, who do not use instru- 
mental music in their worship, and the Disciples of 
Christ, or the Progressives, who are more in line 
with other evangelical Churches in their worship 
and in their wonderful growth and activities. 

The educational work of the Disciples began with 
the founding of Bethany College, West Virginia, in 
1840. Alexander Campbell was its founder and first 
president. The institution now has as endowment 
of $1,435,000 and property valued at $539,000. 
Transylvania University (Lexington, Ky.), Drake 
University (Des Moines, Iowa), Hiram College 
(Hiram, Ohio), and Texas Christian University 
(Fort Worth, Tex.) rank high in property valuations 
and endowments. Other flourishing institutions 
are: Phillips University (Enid, Okla.), Cotner Uni- 
versity (Lincoln, Nebr.), and Virginia Christian 
College (Lynchburg, Va.). 

The American Christian Missionary Society was 
organized as a home mission agency in 1849. The 
Christian Women’s Board of Missions was organ- 
ized in 1874, and the Foreign Christian Missionary 
Society dates from 1875. All of these have been 
merged into a United Christian Missionary Society, 
which administers the work of both home and for- 
eign missions, together with the work of church 
erection, ministerial relief, and the benevolent homes 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 


of the Church. The headquarters of the Society are 
in St. Louis. The “Men and Millions Movement,” 
launched in 1913, was the first campaign among the 
Churches for “millions” for missionary purposes. 
It contemplated the raising of $6,000,000, $1,000,000 
of which was pledged—and has been paid—by a 
wealthy layman of Kansas City. Reports for 1923 
show that the sum of $5,327,008 has been paid on 
this movement. 

Statistics: Church of Christ, by U. S. Census re- 
ports for 1916 (no later figures available) : Churches, 
4,342; members, 317,937. 

Disciples of Christ, membership by States, from 
the Yearbook, 1923 (covering reports up to June 
30, 1923), issued by the United Christian Missionary 
Society: 


DALES LI Wa a PeOOo eS LNA a es Pra deal cud 146,434 
Teh s  s e DIE earet LOW yoann eas 67,547 
IAYRAUSAS sy sss 16,545-0) KRansae re dee ess « 73,406 
California, North.. 15,870 Kentucky......... 133,822 
Gamomin, south... + 25,225." Louisiana;.<... s+. 4,399 
Colgracn.. yo 2. <s TS 29S eMarviands: cs cecccse §,501 
TOEIAWATES «afc. ds is. % 14 Sa aviichiga thts a ocr 14,288 
District of Columbia Ss ioereMin nesota aivcve vs 5,390 
UM ate Pp aig 6,159  Mississippi........ 8,829 
Sn eae 13,024) 69 NESSOUTIC a a. eae oo 139,855. 
Pee WANT ee sce hon bin. 650 05 Montana cuss ies 3,720 
Idaho, North...... V2 lou Peet askaite ts oe oe 24,256 
Idaho, South...... 3,815 New England...... 1,960 
PEt, ob ssc 9.9 9) 420,904 New Jersey..>.o sess 690 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 





New Mexico and Utahiv2euiasee, 325 
West Texas..... 0 59dc0 Vir eitiianiiers me ees 36,199 
Newey orke ate 12,885 Washington, East.. 9,201 
North Carolina.... 24,671 Washington, West.. 10,059 
North Dakota..... 249 West Virginia..... 18,956 
Ohiguor cose. Cees 113,974 Wisconsin......... 3,329 
Okianoma sae eae 91,2947 >) Wyonling..c.5- as ee 1,176 
rego tol-cisiets lees 19,807 —_—_———. 
Pennsylvania, East. 9,431 Total,:UsS... 1,303,266 
Pennsylvania, West 24,549 Canada........... 8,664 
South Carolina.... 4,111 Mission lands and 
South Dakota..... 1,855 foreign countries. 71,317 
Tennessee......... Zerat ee 
Pexas tric ae 65,693 Total, world... 1,383,247 


The gain in membership in the United States for 
the year ending June 30, 1923, was 68,572. 

The largest congregations of the Disciples are 
those of Canton, Ohio (First Church), with a mem- 
bership of 4,000; Des Moines, Iowa (University 
Place), 3,353; Pittsburg, Kans., 3,300; Kansas City, 
Mo. (Linwood Boulevard), 2,721; Fort Worth, Tex. 
(First Church), 2,597. The church at Canton, Ohio, 
has a “Bible-school” enrollment of 5,000. 


EASTERN ORTHODOX CHURCH 


Tus is the general name of a family of churches 
which constitute one of the three grand divisions of 
64 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 


Christianity—Eastern Orthodox (or Greek Catho- 
lic) Churches, Roman Catholic, and Protestant. The 
Eastern Orthodox Churches adhere to the Greek 
rite, in distinction from the Latin, or Roman, and 
all the churches of this group hold the faith, or sys- 
tem of doctrine, formulated by the seven early ecu- 
menical councils. 

The division of the ancient Church into the East- 
ern, or Greek, wing and Western, or Roman, oc- 
curred in the ninth century. They were never or- 
ganically united, but grew up together and co- 
operated in the early extension of Christianity and 
in the early ecumenical councils. But from the be- 
ginning they differed in tradition, nationality, and _ 
language. The growth of the papacy in the West 
laid the foundation for the final rupture, the conflict 
between the pope of Rome and the patriarch of 
Constantinople finally resulting in each excom- 
municating the other. The chief doctrinal differ- 
ence between the Eastern and Western Churches 
is the ‘‘Filioque” addition to the Nicene Creed made 
by the Roman Church, making that creed declare 
that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father “and 
the Son,” the Greeks holding that the procession 
is from the Father only, as originally stated. The 
Greek Church differs from the Roman in other im- 
portant particulars, as follows: Rejection of the 
papacy; celibacy is not practiced, priests being al- 
lowed to marry once; baptism among the Easterns 
is by trine immersion, sprinkling, as practiced by 
the Romans, being held to be “an unchristian in- 
novation”; the attitude in prayer is standing, ex- 


5 , 65 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 





cept at Pentecost, when the worshipers kneel; in- 
fants are confirmed and admitted to the communion 
at baptism. The Greeks have an elaborate ritual, 
like the Romans. They accept the first seven ecu- 
menical councils, but reject all the Western coun- 
cils. They are not strongly committed against 
Protestantism, as the reform movement never came 
into active conflict with the Eastern Church. But 
the effort made by a patriarch of Constantinople to 
engraft Calvinism upon the Greek theology failed 
completely, and the innovator was strangled to 
death and his body thrown into the Bosporus 
(1638). Until 1917 secession from the Orthodox 
Church was rigidly prohibited. 

The Eastern Church is divided into fifteen 
branches, each independent of the other. The com- 
munion embraces the Greek, Russian, and Slavonic 
nationalities and is found chiefly in Turkey, Greece, 
Servia, Roumania, Russia, some parts of Austria, in 
Western Asia, and, chiefly by immigration, in the 
United States. The largest branch is the Church 
in Russia, ruled by the Russian Holy Synod. For- 
merly the Czar was the recognized head of the 
church, but the revolution, beginning in 1917, has 
left the church in Russia without a head, and has 
revealed the fact that the church has but little 
influence or directing force in the life of the na- 
tion. The estimated membership of all the va- 
rious branches throughout the world is 150,000,- 
000. 

In the United States there are seven branches of 
the Eastern Orthodox Church; but, as in the Old 
World, all are one in doctrine, discipline, and wor- 


66 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 





ship, and all are subject to ancient canon law as to 
government. The Russian Church has precedence 
over other branches, for the reason that she was 
first to be planted in this country. All Slavonic 
branches, excepting the Bulgarian and the Syrian 
Church, are under her rule. The Greek branch is 
under the Synod of Athens. The following are the 
latest obtainable figures for the various branches in 
the United States: 





PUA CITENOUOX eC Ne ee ae ee 410 
MASSA COEEDOUOXK se Gore eee ed ke oe eke 200,000 
Greek ESELINOOXKE Yes 5. iC ee tee Seek. 200,000 
PeIeRIROTE ROCK. tre, ete hc ee no et, 50,000 
Dae Si AAPELILIMOUOX clio oh eee eR ee ek 3,000 
miata. Orthodox !s-)\. > os dtete cee. Oke 1.994 
Bulgarian Orthodox...... 650 

Me een ees occ"! 50 SAS o' e's eared aeeehe & watbe: 456,054 





EVANGELICAL CHURCH 


WHILE not usually classified among Methodist 
bodies, the Evangelical Association is Methodistic 
in doctrine, polity, and in spirit, and it is repre- 
sented in the Methodist Ecumenical Conferences. 
Its founder, Jacob Albright, was at one time a min- 
ister in the Methodist Episcopal Church. 

Albright was a German, born in Pennsylvania in 
1759. The low religious condition of his own peo- 
ple around him led him to undertake a religious 
revival among them about 1790. His efforts met 
with success, and, like the founder of Methodism, 
he was soon confronted with the problem of taking 
care of his converts. The leaders of his own de- 
nomination “did not wish to do work at that time 
among the Germans of this country,” and Albright 


67 


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was elected bishop. Two years later a discipline, 
similar to that used in the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, was published. Albright’s followers were 
at first called the “Albright people,’ or the “Al- 
brights,” but later the name Evangelical Associa- 
tion of North America was taken. While this 
movement was begun among the German people, 
it has now its largest membership among English- 
speaking people. 

Differences of long standing culminated in 1890 
and 1891 in the trial and suspension of the three 
bishops of the Association. In October, 1891, two 
bodies, each claiming to be the legal general con- 
ference, met, the one in Philadelphia, the other in 
Indianapolis. The courts were resorted to, and 
their decisions were generally in favor of the In- 
dianapolis conference. The opposite wing organ- 
ized the United Evangelical Church at Naperville, 
Ill., in 1894. 

After twenty years of separation the two bodies 
were reunited in 1921-22. The General Conferences 
of the two organizations came together in joint ses- 
sion in October, 1922, at Detroit, Mich., and merged 
themselves into the General Conference of the Evan- 
gelical Church. 

The denomination is strongest in the States of 
Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Illinois. It has thirty-two 
Annual Conferences, and maintains extensive pub- 
lishing, educational, and missionary agencies. 
Northwestern College and the Evangelical Theolog- 
ical Seminary are located at Naperville, Ill. Other 


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colleges are located at Myerstown and Reading, Pa., 
and at Le Mars, Iowa. The Church reports 1,856 
ministers, 2,916 churches, and 259,417 members. 





EVANGELICAL PROTESTANTS (GERMAN) 


Tuis is the name given collectively to a number 
of independent German Churches, found chiefly in 
Ohio and Pennsylvania. They have ministerial as- 
sociations, in which matters of mutual interest are 
discussed, but otherwise there are no interchurch 
organizations. Their theology is very liberal, the 
individual believer being left to his own interpre- 
tation of Scripture. In 1916 these Churches re- 


ported 34 ministers, 37 churches, and 17,962 mem- 
bers. 





EVANGELICAL SYNOD (GERMAN) 


Tuis represents in the United States the State 
Church of Prussia, which is composed of a union 
of Lutheran and Reformed elements. According to 
an official statement, “the object and purpose of the 
German Evangelical Synod in general is the ad- 
vancement and extension of the kingdom of God, 
but especially the establishment and expansion of 
the Evangelical Church among the German popula- 
tion of the United States.” 

The Synod was organized near St. Louis, Mo., in 
1840. Other German synods have since united with 
it. The Synod is divided into eighteen districts, 
which hold district annual conferences. There is 
a general conference, which convenes every four 


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years. The body carries on through various boards 
extensive educational, missionary, and benevolent 
work. Both parochial and Sunday schools are 
maintained. The work of the denomination is done 
almost exclusively among the German population, 
but in recent years a few English-speaking 
Churches have been organized. This body is most 
numerous in the States of Missouri, Illinois, and 
Ohio. Statistics: Ministers, 1,175; churches, 1,314; 
members, 317,986. 





FRIENDS 


THE founder of the Society of Friends, or Quak- 
ers, was George Fox, who, becoming dissatisfied 
with the religious conditions in England, began 
preaching about 1647. He traveled through Eng- 
land on foot and soon drew around him a considera- 
ble following. One of Fox’s early converts was 
Margaret Fell, a woman of prominence, who be- 
came one of his strongest supporters. From her 
house a band of sixty Quaker missionaries went 
forth to preach the doctrines of the new faith. The 
labors of Fox and this band of preachers were at- 
tended by great spiritual power, and thousands of 
adherents were gathered. On account of some doc- 
trines preached, as advising against oaths, the pay- 
ment of taxes for the support of the State Church, 
and against obedience to all laws deemed by them 
iniquitous, the Friends came into conflict with the 
government, and thousands of them were impris- 
oned and subjected to persection. 

After many rebuffs the movement took hold in 


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the American colonies in New England as early as 
1660. George Fox himself made a preaching tour 
of the colonies in 1673-81. But the most important 
enterprise in the history of the Society in this coun- 
try was the settlement of Pennsylvania by William 
Penn and a company of his brethren, beginning in 
1682. This colony was controlled by the Friends 
for more than seventy years. 

Soon after the cessation of persecution (about 
1680) the Friends lost much of their aggressiveness 
and began to turn their attention to internal or- 
ganization and discipline. Much attention was also 
given to works of philanthropy and against slavery. 
From this time there was a steady decline in mem- 
bership. In 1827 a schism occurred in the societies 
in Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, and Indiana, due 
to the preaching of Elias Hicks, a prominent Friend, 
who taught doctrines closely resembling Unitarian 
views. The followers of Hicks came to be known 
as the Hicksite branch. In 1840 another separation 
from the main body occurred, although not so 
serious nor distinct as before, the point of contro- 
versy being as to the relative authority of the 
Scriptures and the Spirit. Those who separated 
are known as the Wilburites, from John Wilbur. 
Since 1871 the Friends have been active supporters 
of foreign mission work. 

The doctrine emphasized in the preaching of 
George Fox and the distinctive doctrine held by the 
Friends from that day is that relating to the “inner 
illumination and guidance of the Holy Spirit” in 
the individual believer. This doctrine lies at the 


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root of all their special doctrines and explains the 
peculiar nature of their meetings. The Friends 
meet and usually remain in silence, in meditation, 
worship, or self-examination, until some one is 
moved by the Spirit to speak. In their view all be- 
lievers are “priests unto God,” and any person, old 
or young, male or female, who feels so called has 
the authority to teach or to preach. The ordinances 
of baptism and the Lord’s Supper are not observed, 
their belief being that the baptism of the Spirit and 
communion with the Father and the Son meet all 
Scriptural necessities. 

The societies are associated in monthly, quarter- 
ly, and annual meetings. These meetings appoint 
overseers for the membership and elders for over- 
sight of the ministry. It has become noticeable of 
late that the distinctive Quaker garb is being laid 
aside and that the characteristic “thee” and “thou” 
of their speech is falling into disuse. The Society 
maintains several educational institutions, among 
them being the William Penn Charter School, 
Philadelphia, founded by William Penn, and Bryn 
Mawr Woman’s College, at Byrn Mawr, Pa. 

There are four divisions of the Friends in this 
country, as follows: The Orthodox, the most numer- 
ous branch, strongest in Ohio and Indiana; the 
Hicksite, strongest in Pennsylvania; the Wilburite, 
found mainly in Indiana and Iowa; and the Primi- 
tive, with an insignificant scattered membership. 
The total figures for all bodies are: Ministers, 
1.252; churches, 714; members, 106,548—all reports 
showing losses during the last few years. 


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Se rere a ated ame) CR EE 


FRIENDS OF THE TEMPLE 


A sMALL body, originating in Germany, which has 
tor its purpose the setting up of the kingdom of 
Christ on earth, with Jerusalem for its capital. It 
is expected to restore the temple and the ancient 
theocracy of Israel. A colony has been planted in 
Palestine, but the adherents of the movement, never 
very numerous, are diminishing. In 1916 there 
were five hundred members in the United States. 





HOLINESS BODIES (EVANGELISTIC ASSO- 
CIATIONS) 


THERE are a great number of independent bodies, 
bearing various names, widely divergent in many 
points of doctrine and polity, but which agree in 
emphasizing sanctification, or “holiness,” as a dis- 
tinct experience. The U. S. Census reports group 
many of them under “Evangelistic Associations,” 
and the Federal Council Yearbook (1923) uses the 
same classification; but both reports list under dif- 
ferent names many other small organizations which 
are distinguished by the same holiness doctrine. 
All bodies thus distinguished are grouped together 
here under the general title of “Holiness Bodies.” 
They are as follows: 

1. Apostolic Church, reporting 112 members. 

2. Apostolic Christian Church, with 4,766 mem- 
bers, 

3. Apostolic Faith Movement. Originated in a 
revival at Topeka, Kans., in 1900. It has 2,196 
members. 

4. Assemblies of God, General Council. Organ- 


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ized at Hot Springs, Ark., in 1914. Governed by a 
General Council, which meets annually. Headquar- 
ters of the organization are at Springfield, Mo. 
Schools are operated at Springfield, Mo., Los An- 
geles, and San Francisco, Cal., Rochester, N. Y., 
Newark, N. J., Findlay, Ohio, and other places, in- 
dicating that the membership is widely scattered 
over the country. The organization is credited with 
1,034 ministers, 1,000 churches, and a membership 
of 60,000. 

5. Christian Congregation. Formed in 1899, at 
Kokomo, Ind., and existing only in that State, with 
an annual conference and a presiding bishop. It 
has 28 ministers, 15 churches, and a membership of 
3,000. 

6. Church of God, General Assembly. First or- 
ganized in Monroe County, Tenn., in 1886 under the 
name of “Christian Union.” The name was later 
changed to that of “Holiness Church,” and in 1907 
was reorganized under its present form and name. 
The Church has bishops, deacons, and evangelists. 
This body, while largely Methodistic in origin, ob- 
serves the ceremony of foot-washing, and baptism 
is by immersion. It has 21,076 members. 

7. Church of God, as Organized by Christ. Exist- 
ing in Indiana, with 216 members. 

8. Church of Daniel’s Band. Found in Michigan, 
having 100 members. 

9. Church Transcendent, a single congregation in 
Ohio, with 15 members. 

10. Hepzibah Faith Association. A camp-meeting 
organization in Iowa, with about 400 members. _ 

11. Holiness Church. Organized in Southern Cal- 


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ifornia in 1896, being formed from certain “Holiness 
Bands” which had withdrawn from the Methodist 
Churches. The headquarters of the body are at Los 
Angeles, Cal., but many churches are found in Ken- 
tucky and Tennessee. It has 96 ministers, 43 
churches, and 1,250 members. 

12. Lumber River Mission. An organization com- 
posed of Holiness Methodist Churches in North 
Carolina. Membership, 434. 

13. Metropolitan Church Association. Developed 
from the Metropolitan Methodist Church in Chica- 
go in 1894. Headquarters are at Waukesha, Wis. 
This branch is known as the “Burning Bush.” 
Membership, 704. 

14. Missionary Church Association. Organized in 
Indiana in 1898. Membership, 1,554. 

15. Penial Missions. Headquarters, Los Angeles, 
Cal., having 257 members. 

16. Pentecost Bands of the World. Headquarters, 
Indianapolis, Ind. Membership, 400. 

17. Pentecostal Holiness Church. A union of the 
Fire-Baptized Holiness Church and the Pentecostal 
Holiness Church, formed in North Carolina in I9I1I. 
The body has 471 ministers, 320 churches, and 7,940 
members, found mainly in the South Atlantic States. 

18. Pilgrim Holiness Church. Organized as the 
International Apostolic Holiness Union at Cincin- 
nati, Ohio, in 1897, by Martin W. Knapp, a Meth- 
odist minister. The Church is partly Methodistic 
and partly Congregational in government. Schools 
are maintained at Owosso, Mich., Kingswood, Ky., 
Shaklesford, Va., Greensboro, N. C., and Allentown, 


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Pa. Membership, by U. S. Census reports, 1916, 
5,270. 

19. Pillar of Fire. Headquarters at Zarephath, N. 
J. There are two Annual Conferences—an Eastern, 
which meets at Zarephath, N. J., and a Western 
which meets at Denver, Colo. The body also has 
two bishops, one of them a woman, Alma White. 
The body reports 133 ministers, 23 churches, and 
722 members. 

20. Volunteer Missionary Society. A colored 
body, organied in Alabama in 1900. Membership, 


855. 





JEWISH CONGREGATIONS 


AccorpInc to 1920 figures, a London estimate 
gives the Jewish population of the world at 15,430,- 
ooo. The American Jewish Yearbook estimates the 
population at 15,744,662. The largest Jewish popu- 
lations are found in Poland (3,300,000), the territo- 
ries of the former Russian Empire (3,600,000), Aus- 
tria and Hungary (2,250,000), and the United States 
(3,100,000). New York City has a Jewish popula- 
tion of 1,500,000; Chicago, 250,000; Philadelphia, 
210,000; Cleveland, 100,000. 

Jews at an early date, as exiles from Spain and 
Portugal, settled in the American colonies. They 
were found in New Amsterdam as early as 1652. 
They were joined by others from Brazil; but the 
Jewish settlers were not welcomed, and they moved 
to Rhode Island, where the first synagogue was or- 
ganized about 1655. ns old synagogue is still 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 


standing at Newport. Pennsylvania, Georgia, and 
the Carolinas were the next places of settlement. 
The Jews readily attached themselves to their new 
asylum and showed themselves patriots when the 
break came with England. A member of the New- 
port synagogue gave $10.000 to finish the Bunker 
Hill monument. 

Religiously, the Jews may be said, in a general 
way, to hold the ancient faith of their fathers, but 
they are not united in their views and customs. 
Modern Judaism has three divisions, not strictly 
applied nor everywhere applied alike. The Ortho- 
dox Jews hold strictly to the Old Testament as the 
Word of God, and with equal veneration and strict- 
ness they observe the traditional body of laws, 
statutes, and customs expounded by the rabbis of 
the Talmuds and handed down through the genera- 
tions by tradition. The codification of these laws 
and customs, made by Rabbi Joseph Caro in the 
middle of the sixteenth century, is authoritative in 
all the minutest details of Jewish life. 

The Conservative congregations, in common with 
the Orthodox, accept both the written and the oral 
law, but are less strict in their observance. 

The Reformed Jews hold a different attituae to- 
ward both the acceptance and the observance of the 
written and oral law. Liberal ideas as to the in- 
spiration of the Bible and the development of reve- 
lation and tradition are the rule among them, and 
great concessions are made to the spirit of the times 
and the conditions of modern life. In Germany and 
the United States Sunday services are being intro- 


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duced in addition to the regular Sabbath observ- 
ances, and in a few places, notably Chicago, the 
Sabbath service has been entirely discarded. 

The rites and ceremonies which are generally 
observed vary. The Sabbath is still strictly ob- 
served by the Orthodox. They also rigidly observe 
the two festivals of New Year and the Day of 
Atonement in September and October and the Pass- 
over festival in March or April. The Pentecost 
festival, at the end of May or the beginning of June, 
is observed by the Reformed Jews, among whom it 
is a day of confirmation. The Feast of Tabernacles 
is still generally observed. The dietary laws of 
Moses are universally observed by the Orthodox 
Jews. 

The Jews have no religious head. Each congre- 
gation is autonomous and a law unto itself. But 
congregations cooperate in many ways. There is a 
Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the 
Young Men’s Hebrew Association, the National 


Council of Jewish Women, and other general socie- 
ties. According to the latest official reports there are 


in the United States 3,000 Jewish congregations, and 
810 rabbis. Only the heads of Jewish families are 
usually members of synagogues. 

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LATTER-DAY SAINTS, OR MORMONS 


Tue Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 
better known as the Mormon Church, was organized 
April 6, 1830, at Fayette, Seneca County, N. Y., with 
six members. Joseph Smith, its founder, was a 
native of Vermont, whence he moved in boyhood 
with his parents to Western New York. The elder 
Smith was known as a roving money digger and 
water witch, and the family is said to have lived a 
hand-to-mouth existence. Joseph while a boy took 
up his father’s calling and is reported by his neigh- 
bors to have miraculously discovered a “peep stone,” 
by which he claimed to be able to find hidden treas- 
ure. This earned him the nickname of “Peep-Stone 
Joe.” His operations carried him frequently into 
Pennsylvania, where in 1827, at the age of twenty- 
two, he eloped with and married the daughter of a 
respectable farmer. 

Smith’s visions and revelations began when he 
was only fourteen years of age. Revival meetings 
had turned his attention to religion, but denomina- 
tional disputes left him greatly unsettled as to which 
one of the many Churches he should join. Accord- 
ing to his own account, he determined to commit 
the matter to the Lord in prayer in response to the 
Scriptural invitation of James i. 5. While thus en- 
gaged in the woods near his father’s house “he be- 
held two glorious personages, wrapped in a brilliant 
light, standing above him in the air.” He was told 
in response to his inquiries that he should join none 
of the Churches, that all were wrong, and that the 
true gospel would soon be restored to men. Three 


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years later, “after Joseph had retired for the night 
and was engaged in prayer, the room was filled with 
light, and the angel Moroni appeared, who, among 
other disclosures, revealed the hiding place of cer- 
tain golden plates, upon which was recorded the 
fullness of the everlasting gospel.” The prophet 
received these plates from the angel, the date being 
set down as September 22, 1827, and with the plates 
“two stones in silver bows, deposited with the rec- 
ord, constituting what is called the Urim and 
Thummin, which God had prepared for the purpose 
of translating the characters of the record.” With 
the aid of these supernatural spectacles Smith trans- 
lated the record, which was published in 1830 as 
the Book of Mormon. The plates were returned 
into the keeping of the angel. 

In close association with Smith in the publication 
of the Book of Mormon and in the organization of 
the Mormon Church were Sidney Rigdon, Martin 
Harris, and Oliver Cowdery. Prefixed to the pub- 
lication is the sworn statement of Harris, Cowdery, 
and Peter Whitmer that they had seen the plates 
from which the book had been transcribed. Harris 
had been in turn a Quaker, Universalist, Baptist, 
and Presbyterian, but “always a dreamer and 
fanatic,’ affirming that he had visited the moon. 
Harris mortgaged his farm in order to provide for 
the publication of Smith’s book; and as the sale was 
slow, he forfeited his property. Cowdery was a 
schoolmaster who served as Smith’s amanuensis. 
All three witnesses who certified to the authenticity 
of Smith’s manuscript later fell away from Mor- 

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monism and declared their previous testimony to 
be false. 

The Book of Mormon has fifteen divisions, or 
books, which purport to have been written by as 
many different hands. It sets forth the history of 
certain imaginary races of people who anciently in- 
habited America. One tribe, called the “Jaredites,” 
came directly from the Tower of Babel. The sec- 
ond race came directly from the city of Jerusalem. 
The Jaredites were destroyed. The remnant of the 
Israelitish settlers are the American Indians. The 
book teaches that Jesus Christ made his appear- 
ance on this continent after his resurrection and 
planted the true gospel and instituted the sacra- 
ments and the order of priesthood and Church 
powers. But the American people were cut off in 
consequence of their transgressions, and the last of 
their prophets, Mormon, was charged with the task 
of collecting and revising the sacred records. These 
were then engraved on golden plates, in “Reformed 
Egyptian,” and buried at Cumorah, “about 420 A.D.” 

Non-Mormon theories as to the origin of the 
Book of Mormon usually agree in connecting it with 
a certain manuscript entitled “Manuscript Found,” 
by Solomon Spaulding, containing an imaginary ac- 
count of the origin of the American Indians. Cred- 
ible evidence goes to show that this manuscript was 
accessible to Rev. Sidney Rigdon for more than two 
years before the publication of the Book of Mor- 
mon and that Rigdon and Smith were associated 
during this time. Rigdon had been a printer in 
Pittsburg, where the manuscript had been sent for 
publication and later became in turn a Baptist and 


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a “Campbellite” preacher. Internal evidence of the 
book strongly reflects the preaching of Rigdon and 
the religious disputes of the times. In the language 
of one investigator, “It is not specially important 
to know who edited the Spaulding story and de- 
veloped it into the present Book of Mormon. But 
all the evidence points to Sidney Rigdon, and it 
points to no one else. His ‘speech bewrayeth’ him 
in the employment of phraseology to which he had 
become accustomed while associated with the breth- 
ren of that denomination,” referring to his affiliation 
with the movement just beginning under Campbell. 
(R. G. McNiece, D.D., “Mormonism: Its Origin, 
Characteristics, and Doctrines,” article in the 
Fundamentals.) 

In 1831 Joseph Smith and a small company of 
“converts” moved to Kirtland, Ohio, where they 
found a more inviting field for their doctrines. 
Missionaries were sent out, and as a result of their 
labors the new Church numbered within a few 
months more than twelve hundred members. Com- 
munal business enterprises were established, among 
them a bank, with Smith at its head. The bank 
failed. Judicial proceedings were begun against 
the prophet, but in obedience to a revelation he fled 
to Missouri, whither many of the saints had pre- 
ceded him. 

Smith found his people in sore straits in Mis- 
souri, due to the hostility among the “Gentiles,” or 
non-Mormons. The State government assigned the 
Mormons a place of residence in the thinly settled 
western portion of the State, and here the town of 
Far West was founded. The enmity of the Gen- 

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tiles led to the formation among the Mormons of 
the “Danite Band,” a secret order sworn to obey 
any behest of the Church against property or life. 
It was here also that the tithing system was intro- 
duced. But peace for the saints was short-lived 
in the new Zion. The Church leaders came under 
suspicion of misappropriation of trust funds, and 
many prominent members forsook the organization. 
Conflicts again broke out between Mormons and 
Gentiles and between the Mormons and the State 
authorities. A general exodus of the saints fol- 
lowed, about fifteen thousand crossing into Illinois. 
The troubles of the new sect had attracted wide at- 
tention ; and as missionaries continued to go far and 
wide, even to England, bringing in hundreds of re- 
cruits and sympathizers, Smith immediately began 
to plan a new Zion on a larger scale. The tithing 
system kept the coffers of the Church full. In 
obedience to a “revelation,” he laid out the city of 
Nauvoo, on the banks of the Mississippi, in Han- 
cock County, Ill. It was the prophet’s purpose to 
found a theocracy, with himself at its head as God’s 
vicegerent. At Nauvoo Smith attained his greatest 
eminence and power in the Church. His headship 
was undisputed in both temporal and spiritual af- 
fairs of the community. He took the title of 
“Prophet, Seer, and Revelator, Apostle of Jesus 
Christ and Elder of the Church.” It is recorded 
that in 1842 eight ships were chartered to transport 
the converts from England to America. The ambi- 
tions of the prophet knew no bounds, and in 1844 he 
announced for the Presidency of the United States. 

It was at Nauvoo that the doctrine of polygamy 

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was first announced. There are evidences that it 
had been practiced long before in Ohio and Mis- 
souri; but owing to the antagonism which it was 
feared the practice would arouse, it was kept within 
close bounds until the saints should grow stronger 
in numbers. At Nauvoo the doctrine seems to have 
been announced in obedience to a convenient reve- 
lation to quiet the indignation of Smith’s wife at 
his profligacy. 

But the prophet’s career was nearing its close. 
Internal dissensions arose over the plural wife doc- 
trine and on account of Smith’s autocratic govern- 
ment. Riots broke out, and many of the citizens 
fled. Public indignation ran high among the Gen- 
tiles, and a movement was set on foot to drive the 
Mormons out of the State. Both sides took up 
arms. Smith and his brother Hyrum were arrested 
on a charge of treason and lodged in the jail at 
Carthage. Here, notwithstanding the presence of 
twelve hundred State militia, on the night of June 
27, 1844, a mob assaulted the jail and shot to death 
Joseph and Hyrum Smith. 

After the death of their leader the Mormons split 
up into different followings, according as rival 
claimants for the prophetic office were acknowl- 
edged. One J. J. Strang loudly proclaimed his right 
to succeed the prophet and led off a company to 
Wisconsin, where he established a “kingdom” on an 
island in Lake Michigan. In 1856 he was shot and 
killed in a row, and his followers dispersed. The 
ever-prominent Sidney Rigdon secured a following, 
but his movement soon came to naught. A still 
larger company took the name of “Young Joseph- 


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ites,” after Joseph Smith, Jr., and formed the Reor- 
ganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day 
Saints. (See below.) But the main body of the 
Mormens acknowledged the claims of Brigham 
Young, “the lion of the Lord.” 

Young was a man of great native force and 
ability, but with limited education and wholly with- 
out culture. He had embraced Mormonism in New 
York in 1832 and soon joined the prophet at Kirt- 
land. He had rendered notable service to the 
Church as missionary, as one of the Quorum of 
Twelve Apostles (instituted in 1835), and it was 
he who had directed the movement from Missouri 
into Illinois during the troublous times of 1838. 
The crisis in Mormon affairs following Smith’s 
death led to the plan of a migration to a locality 
beyond the borders of civilization where the saints 
might be free from molestation. Young organized 
and conducted the expedition which, beginning in 
1846, succeeded by the close of 1848 in transferring 
the larger body of Mormons to the valley of Great 
Salt Lake, in Utah. 

Brigham Young’s administration of the affairs of 
the Church, beginning in 1844, continued until his 
death, in 1871, during which time he exercised abso- 
lute sway. He not only completed and perfected 
the Mormon hierarchy and largely refashioned and 
gave effect to the body of Mormon doctrines, but 
founded an important State. He extended the mis- 
sionary forces of the Church and brought into the 
valley a constant stream of new adherents to the 
faith, Under the presidency of Brigham Young 
polygamy became the rule among the Mormons. 

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Young himself was, first and last, the husband of 
twenty-five wives and the father of fifty-six chil- 
dren. 

Since the death of Young the Mormon hierarchy 
has had at its head successively John Taylor, Wil- 
ford Woodruff, Lorenzo Snow, Joseph F. Smith, a 
son of Hyrum Smith, and the present incumbent, 
Heber J. Grant. The system of government in the 
Church has at its head the President, who succeeds 
also to the office of “prophet, seer, and revelator” 
instituted by Joseph Smith. The President, with 
his two counselors, is called the First Presidency. 
The Quorum of Twelve Apostles constitutes a sort 
of traveling episcopacy, or overseers, under the di- 
rection of the First Presidency. Next in order are 
the Seventies, or seventy elders, who are under 
seven presidents. The seventy elders, with their 
presidents, constitute the Melchizedek, or Higher 
Priesthood. The Aaronic, or Lower Priesthood, 
consists of priests, teachers, and deacons. The ter- 
ritory of the Church is divided into “Stakes of 
Zion,” in distinction from Zion proper, which is in 
Jackson County, Mo., where the saints expect to 
gather at last to receive the returning Christ. The 
stakes are divided into wards. Each stake has a 
complete hierarchy, a miniature copy of that over 
the entire Church, and each ward has a bishop, 
who is assisted by under officers. 

According to a Mormon statement, their system 
“consists of doctrines, commandments, ordinances, 
and rites revealed from God to the present age.” 
The Bible is accepted “in so far as it is correctly 
translated. We also accept the Book of Mormon 

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as the Word of God.” But such liberties have been 
taken with the Bible as to leave it without any meaning 
to a Mormon, and the Book of Mormon itself is but 
a historical relic as an authority in comparison with 
the body of divinity which has grown up through the 
revelations of the prophets of Mormonism. “The 
first principle of Mormonism is belief in a present 
and progressive revelation.” The outline of Mormon 
beliefs, so called, which is given to non-Mormons by 
the Mormon missionaries, does not contain the peculiar 
doctrines of this sect. The Mormons have developed 
a sort of philosophy which justifies polygamy, and 
makes that doctrine, whatever their practice, a nec- 
essary article in the faith of a good Mormon. The 
Mormon theory of God is that he is Adam exalted. 
Adam “is our father and our God, and the only God 
with whom we have to do,” according to Brigham 
Young. Mormonism teaches that those who build 
up large polygamous establishments on earth will 
be advanced to the dignity of gods in the after life 
and will rule over kingdoms. “God himself was 
once as we are now,” says Joseph Smith, “and is 
an exalted man. . . . And you have got to learn 
how to be gods yourselves, the same as other gods 
have done before you.” The Mormon Catechism 
scouts the idea of one God. “Are there more gods 
than one? Yes, many.” These gods continue to 
multiply their progeny in the heavenly world by 
their “celestial wives,” the women who were 
“sealed” to them in this world. The “sealing,” or 
“celestial marriage,” ceremony is performed only in 
the temple at Salt Lake City and is attended by 
secret rites to which only the faithful are admitted. 
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Obedience to the priesthood is a cardinal law of 
the Mormon. Baptism is by immersion and “is un- 
conditionally necessary to salvation.” Infant bap- 
tism is rejected. The Lord’s Supper is observed 
every Sunday, in which water in later times has dis- 
placed the wine. Public worship consists of sing- 
ing, prayers, and a sermon, which may be on a re- 
ligious subject or may be a political harangue. 

Statistics: The Federal Council Yearbook of the 
Churches (1923) reports for the Utah branch of 
Latter-Day Saints 4,718 ministers, 1,050 churches, 
and 508,717 members. The Christian Herald 
Almanac for 1914 credits the Utah branch, “ac- 
cording to the last authoritative figures,’ with 
3,300 preachers, 1,420 churches, and 352,500 mem- 
bers. The United States census of 1906 reported 
215,796 members of the Utah branch. The largest 
number of members is in Utah; but they are numer- 
ous in the States of Idaho, Arizona, and Wyoming, 
in the order named. There are about fifteen thou- 
sand Mormons in Europe (mostly in Great Britain 
and the countries of Northern Europe), a consid- 
erable number in Canada, and several colonies in 
Mexico. The Church keeps about two thousand 
missionaries in the field—in the United States and 
abroad. This branch reports a gain in member- 
ship of 16,000. for the past year. 

Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- 
Day Saints.—The Reorganized Church was formed 
by a small body of Mormons who disowned the 
leadership of Brigham Young and separated from 

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the main body in 1844. The doctrine of polygamy 
was repudiated and has never been practiced among 
them. The Book of Mormon is accepted as of di- 
vine origin, and Joseph Smith is held as the prophet 
of the faith. The system of polity is similar to that 
of the Utah Mormons. The headquarters of the 
Church are at Lamoni, Ia., where a publishing 
house, a college, and homes for the aged are main- 
tained. The Church was presided over by Joseph 
Smith, a son of the first President, until his death at 
Independence, Mo., in 1914. 

Missionary work is carried on in nearly all the 
States and in many foreign countries. In 1922 the 
Church had 95,365 members in the United States 
and Canada. 





LUTHERANS 


Tue Lutheran communion dates from the time of 
the Reformation and owes its origin and name to 
the great reformer, Martin Luther. The name was 
first applied by Rome to all Protestants in derision; 
but it was not accepted without protest from 
Luther, whose aim was not to originate a sect or a 
Church, but to bring about a reform of the entire 
Roman communion. The work and doctrines of 
Luther are in a large measure the common in- 
heritance of Protestantism; but the movement be- 
gun by him early divided into two branches, the 
Lutheran and the Reformed, or the conservative 
and the more radical wing. The more advanced 


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reformers, Zwingli, Calvin, Knox, and others, held 
that the Lutheran reforms did not go far enough; 
that they stopped short of a complete break with 
the corrupt usages and ceremonies of Rome. Doc- 
trinally, the point of greatest divergence between 
Lutheranism and the Reformed creed is on the 
sacraments. The Lutherans held to the necessity 
of baptism to salvation. “Baptism is not simply 
water,” according to a Lutheran authority, “but 
water comprehended in God’s command and con- 
nected with God’s Word”; and it has a saving ef- 
fect “produced by the Word of God, which accom- 
panies and is connected with the water, and by our 
faith, which relies on the Word of God connected 
with the water.” The Lutheran doctrine of the 
Lord’s Supper is thus expressed: They believe “in 
the real presence of Christ’s body and blood in, 
with, and under the bread and wine during the 
sacramental fruition,” a doctrine usually called by 
English writers consubstantiation, in distinction 
from the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstan- 
tiation; but the term is rejected by the Lutherans. 
“Body and blood are not mixed with nor locally in- 
cluded in, but sacramentally and mysteriously 
united with, the elements.” The Lutheran view of 
the Scriptures is that they are not only inspired, 
“but inspiring, possessing not only a normative, but 
a dynamic character. In other Protestant systems 
the sole office of the Word is to point the way of 
life. In Lutheranism it communicates that whereof 
it treats.” In Lutheran churches “art in the sanc- 
tuary is not discarded. The symbolic arrangement 
and decoration of God’s house is encouraged so far 


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as art is expressive of the gospel and impressive as 
an aid in exciting and deepening faith in it.” 
(Quotations from article “Lutherans,” in New 
Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia.) 

Lutheranism is the established Church in Den- 
mark, Norway, and Sweden. Lutherans constitute 
nearly the whole of the Protestant population of 
the German States, where its government is in the 
hands of an ecclesiastical cabinet appointed by the 
State, The people of Finland and about one-fourth 
of the population of Switzerland are Lutherans, and 
this Church is represented in practically every coun- 
try of Europe, the total number of Lutheran com- 
municants in Europe being about 60,000,000. 

Dutch Lutherans were among the first settlers 
of Manhattan Island, but they were not granted the 
privileges of worship until the English occupation 
in 1664. Early Swedish and German immigrants 
planted Churches in Pennsylvania and Delaware. 
The first synod was organized in Pennsylvania in 
1748. A general synod was formed in 1820, which 
aimed at a union of all Lutheran bodies in the 
United States. But the Lutherans in this country 
remain split up into a great number of separate 
bodies, or synods, formed in some instances accord- 
ing to locality and in others on the basis of the lan- 
guage used. The following order shows the com- 
parative strength of various Lutheran bodies ac- 
cording to language used: German, German-Eng- 
lish, English, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Ice- 
landic, Finnish. 

During recent years the Lutheran bodies have 
shown a larger percentage of growth than any of 


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the other large Protestant bodies in the United 
States. This is due in part to immigration; but 
the Lutherans are very aggressive, and their Church 
activities are manifold and constantly expanding. 
The Lutheran bodies maintain parochial schools, 
more than one hundred colleges and theological 
iseminaries, one of the largest foreign mission forces, 
large home evangelistic forces, immigrant stations, 
orphanages, and hospitals. The numerous bodies 
reporting do not differ materially in doctrine. In 
polity the sovereignty of the local congregation is 
recognized, but the synods have a measure of ju- 
dicial and executive authority. 

Following are the various Lutheran bodies in 
the United States, with the membership of each 
(Federal Council Yearbook of the Churches, 1923) : 


United Lutheran Church in America..... 801,250 
Joint Synod ‘of Gnigs., 21.5) seed ee ae 151,948 
LOWa DYNOGNEL sere oe terete cay Ne eee 132,269 
Baffalo Sytiod es Vey. (eee 6,640 
Emmannel Synod os 00% £:512.8.). 0s eee 1,249 
Jehovah Conference... . 5.600. cede cain 864 
Augustana Synod. oso. ne <a + aleieah ee 204,081 
Norwegian Lutheran Church............ 260,888 
Litheran' Free Church Seer aa eee 30,000 
Hiélsen’ Synod. 204.234 27 45, ee eee 1,550 
Luthéeran:Brethrenin ig ibs ite 1,250 
United:Danieh-Ghurtch . 5.5, nna Sees 29,132 
Danish s(hirch (226 Gaur cee eae See 13,944 
Icelandic Sytidd jvc ate ce. oe ee 5,217 
Suditt SyHodss4% codes Ce ee eee ee 23,538 
Finnish National Church.2..........9es 4,395 
Finish Apostolic Church............ 4+. wt, 20,000 
Missourr Synod «4 +435 5-cuatie ada ee 673,321 


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Toiat Wisconsin Synod sn i. io. oo 139,605 
DICE WEA IP SYHOG oak oe ois sb. d «ie ie aioe cnr 4,583 
SD SUES VG ile y iy Ree SP 20a a EE Be 7,959 
LOOT CSI ISSIOU Maes eins a stniale ssl oi8) otis. ote 1,979 
PE MSER eee re ait so aol te es eek 6 Cte eels 2,515,662 


There were reported in 1821 54 independent con- 
gregations, not affiliated with any synod, served 
by 42 pastors and having 7,495 members. 

The States which lead in Lutheran membership, 
according to latest available figures by States (U. 
S. Religious Census, 1916), are: Pennsylvania, 
371,674; Winconsin, 297,310; Minnesota, 264,649; 
and Illinois, 187,746. 





MENNONITES. 


Tue Mennonites are the successors of the Ana- 
baptists, a name given to the scattered elements of 
a party which arose in Switzerland about 1523. 
The movement was directed chiefly against infant 
baptism, and their converts were rebaptized ; hence 
the name. The Anabaptists were mercilessly per- 
secuted, and they became divided, one branch going 
off into mysticism, the other into the wildest fanati- 
cism. The latter undertook to establish the king- 
dom of God on earth by force. The city of Minster 
was forcibly taken and made the center of the pro- 
posed kingdom. A community of goods was in- 
stituted, polygamy was adopted, missionaries were 
sent out, and threats delivered to the governing 
princes of surrounding States to surrender on pain 
of death. Under “King” John of Leyden the Miin- 
ster fanatics are said to have practiced the grossest 


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licentiousness. The city was reduced in 1535, the 
leaders executed, and their forces were scattered. 

Menno Simons, a converted Roman Catholic 
priest, who had been a preacher of the sect, but who 
had opposed the Miinster party, succeeded in gath- 
ering many of the scattered Miinsterites and or- 
ganizing congregations in the Netherlands and in 
Germany on a more spiritual basis. His work of 
reorganization after the Miinster disaster led to 
the new body’s taking his name. 

The Mennonite Confession of Faith, adopted in 
Holland in 1632 and which still forms the doctrinal 
basis of the Church, consists of eighteen articles. 
These embody the doctrines of the Trinity, the fall 
of man, and the atonement as held by all evangeli- 
cal Churches. Among the distinctive doctrines are 
those of nonresistance and forbidding the use of 
oaths. Baptism is administered to believers only 
by pouring, except in one or two branches. The 
Lord’s Supper is observed but twice a year, usually 
in the spring and fall, preceded by Church exami- 
nations into the standing and character of every 
member. Strict discipline is enforced against of- 
fending members. Following the observance of 
the Lord’s Supper, the ceremony of foot-washing 
is performed, during which, as well as in the “kiss 
of peace” following the ceremony, the sexes are 
separated. The bearing of arms and holding office 
under the State are discouraged. 

The Mennonites have bishops, or elders, who 
exercise administrative oversight in districts. Pas- 
tors of congregations are chosen from the congre- 
gation to be served, sometimes by lot. Deacons are 


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also chosen from the congregation in the same man- 
ner. In the absence of the minister the deacon 
takes charge of public meetings. 

The Mennonites now number throughout the 
world about 250,000, of which 60,000 are in Hol- 
land, 18,000 in Germany, a few in Switzerland and 
France, 70,000 in Russia, 20,000 in Canada, and a 
total of 91,603 in the United States, the number in 
this country being distributed among sixteen 
branches. Pennsylvania, where Mennonite immi- 
grants first settled in 1683, is still the State of their 
greatest strength, and here they retain their early 
language, known as “Pennsylvania Dutch.” Men- 
nonites are numerous also in the States of Ohio, 
Kansas, Indiana, and Illinois. A large number of 
Canadian Mennonites have during the last year or 
two moved into Mexico, where they are forming 
a colony. 





MESSIANIC WORLD MESSAGE 


Here is another effort to introduce and popular- 
ize the mystical Oriental religions by the use of 
Christian forms and terminology. The Christian 
Yoga Society was formed at Spokane, Wash., in 
Igt1, by A. K. Mozumdar. This society was dis- 
banded, and was succeeded by the Universal Mes- 
sianic Church, the name of which was changed in 
1922 to Messianic World Message. 

“The purpose of this Church is to bring about 
unity with omnipresent God on the part of its mem- 
bers, in imitation of the Great Master, Jesus Christ; 


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to heal the sick by an appeal to God for interposi- 
tion of divine power; to teach, preach, and demon- 
strate the great mystery of life; and to endeavor to 
secure that health and inspiration which comes from 
living a life close to God.” (Statement in Federal 
Council Yearbook, 1923.) 

The headquarters of the organization are at Los 
Angeles, Cal. A membership of 35,000 is reported, 
with 25 ministers and 20 churches, 





METHODISTS 


“IT was just at the time,” to use the words of the 
founder of Methodism, “when we wanted but little 
of filling up the measure of iniquity that two or 
three clergymen of the Church of England began 
vehemently to call sinners to repentance.” There 
were sinners enough, if the universal testimony of 
the literature bearing on the period is true. Infi- 
delity, vice, drunkenness, licentiousness, grossness, 
extravagance, corruption are some of the terms 
used to characterize the morals of what called itself 
the best society of England during the first half of 
the eighteenth century. At the opposite social ex- 
treme the masses had sunk into degradation and 
hopelessness bordering on heathenism. The crimi- 
nal classes, increasing in numbers and boldness, 
terrorized the population, notwithstanding the ex- 
treme harshness of the laws. Powerless in the face 
of such conditions, the Established Church was it- 
self in need of rescue. Its theology was “cold and 
colorless,” its clergy for the most part “ignorant, 


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indolent, and unspiritual, preaching not good news, 
but good advice.” According to Leckey, “beyond a 
belief in the doctrine of the Trinity and a general 
acknowledgment of the veracity of the four Gospel 
narratives, the divines of that day taught little 
which might not have been taught by the disciples 
of Socrates or the followers of Confucius.” Arch- 
bishop Secker acknowledges that “Christianity is 
now ridiculed and railed at with very little reserve 
and the teachers of it without any at all.” 

But even in such times there were devout souls 
“waiting for the consolation of Israel.” One such 
was Samuel Wesley, rector of Epworth parish, 
whose prophetic words addressed to his son Charles, 
“The Christian faith will surely revive in this king- 
dom; you shall see it, but I shall not,” were soon 
to come true. The first step toward the revival, 
and the beginning of Methodism, dates from No- 
vember, 1729, when a small company of Oxford 
students began to spend certain evenings in the 
week in reading the New Testament and in prayer. 
They gave themselves also to many works of 
charity. The methodical conduct of their lives 
gained them the name of Methodists, given in de- 
rision by their fellow students. The first Meth- 
odists were John and Charles Wesley, Robert Kirk- 
ham, and William Morgan. George Whitefield was 
a later accession to the Oxford company. The rul- 
ing spirit of this group of Methodists, and the cen- 
tral and dominant figure of Methodism as long as 
he lived, was John Wesley (born 1703, died 1791). 
Wesley was well fitted both by birth and training 

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for the place he filled. He had on both sides a dis- 
tinguished ministerial ancestry, of Nonconformist 
views, but his father had taken orders in the Church 
of England. Wesley took his master’s degree at 
Oxford in 1724, was ordained deacon in 1725, and 
elected a fellow of Lincoln College the following 
year. He was ordained priest in 1728 and for a 
short time was curate to his father at Epworth, but 
was recalled to Oxford. It was during this second 
residence that he became leader of the Oxford 
Methodists. 

The little Oxford circle is important in Methodist 
history in that it gave rise to the name and gave 
expression to a revolt against the spiritual dead- 
ness of the times; but these pious students awak- 
ened nobody at this time, because they were seeking 
their own peace by the observance of a punctilious 
legal righteousness. The Wesleys went to Georgia 
in 1736, Charles as secretary to General Oglethorpe 
and John as missionary to the Indians. On the out- 
ward voyage John was deeply impressed with the 
religious views of some Moravian fellow pas- 
sengers and particularly at the self-possession and 
trust they displayed during a violent storm. His 
two years’ ministry in Georgia he accounted a fail- 
ure, and he returned to England with a melancholy 
view of his own religious condition. He sought 
out a Moravian society in Aldersgate Street, Lon- 
don, and attended their meetings. It was at one of 
these on the evening of May 29, 1738, while hearing 
the reading of Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the 
.Romans, in which the great reformer explained the 


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way of salvation by faith, that Wesley found peace. 
To use his own words: “I felt my heart strangely 
warmed; I felt that I did trust in Christ, in Christ 
alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me 
that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and 
saved me from the law of sin and death.” “In that 
moment,” says Dr. J. M. Buckley, “evangelical 
Methodism was born.” 

Charles Wesley (who had returned to England) 
and George Whitefield had already enjoyed a new 
experience and were now preaching salvation by 
faith, the latter to thousands in the open air. The 
Wesleys, because of their High Church notions, 
were cautious on the point of outdoor preaching; 
but finding the doors of the Established Church 
closed against them, and observing the eagerness 
of the masses to hear the gospel, John Wesley soon 
followed Whitefield’s example. The revival spread 
with wonderful rapidity and with a revolutionary 
effect upon English life. Wesley became the leader 
in this movement, as he had been in its forerunner 
at Oxford, not by self-appointment, but by natural 
gifts and providential leading. He was soon con- 
fronted with the necessity of caring for thousands 
of converts for whom the Church of England had 
no place. Wesley entertained no thought of a new 
Church and seems to have had no plans beyond 
meeting the exigencies of the new situation. The 
first society of converts was brought together in 
1739 and attached to a Moravian congregation in 
Fetter Lane, London. Wesley soon found it neces- 
sary to dissent from some doctrines taught by the 


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oe re 


Moravians, and in the following year he transferred 
his society to an old and disused government build- 
ing known as the Foundry, and here in July, 1740, 
“The Methodist Society in London” was formed. 
The Foundry was for many years the headquarters 
of Methodism. 

Within five years after his first open-air sermon 
Wesley had forty-five preachers associated with 
him in conserving the work of the revival, and there 
were more than two thousand members of the so- 
cieties in London alone. Whitefield, who was a 
stanch Calvinist, broke with Wesley on account of 
the latter’s Arminianism, and a small following of 
Calvinistic Methodists went with him. The chief 
contribution of Charles Wesley to the revival and 
to modern evangelical Christianity was his hymns. 
A few of Wesley’s colaborers were clergymen from 
the Church of England; but he relied mainly upon 
the lay preachers raised up by the movement. 
These were unordained itinerating evangelists, who, 
in the zeal and joy of their new-found life, pro- 
claimed an effective gospel. “After Wesley, lay- 
men were the founders of Methodism,” says John 
Alfred Faulkner. “It was their preaching, their 
sufferings, their heroism which turned the tide of 
immorality and irreligion and, as Leckey well says, 
saved England from a French Revolution.” 

The thousands of converts, stirred into a new life 
under this powerful preaching and gathered for the 
most part from the middle and lower classes, the 
great neglected population, were brought together 
in societies, and these divided into classes, over 

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which leaders were appointed for close supervision 
of the member’s spiritual progress. Many chapels 
were reared to house the new congregations. Wes- 
ley grouped together several congregations and put 
them in charge of one of his assistants, thus origi- 
nating the circuit system. In 1743 he drew up the 
General Rules, which are still recognized in every 
branch of Methodism as a model digest of Scriptural 
rules of conduct. Wesley had his preachers and 
leaders meet in quarterly and district conferences 
and, beginning in 1744, in annual conferences.: 
Every interest of the rapidly expanding movement 
had over it the trained eye of Wesley himself, whose 
labors were prodigious. He visited every part of 
the British Isles, most of the territory over and 
over again, preached from two to four times daily, 
and traveled (on horseback until advancing age 
compelled him to use a carriage) about 4,500 miles 
a year. He found time for an amazing amount of 
literary work. 

Though the Wesleyan revival was, theoretically, 
a movement within the Church of England, and 
both John and Charles Wesley lived and died with- 
out ever severing their relations with that com- 
munion, the continued inhospitable attitude of the 
Established Church toward the Methodists made 
the case only too plain that they must provide for 
themselves. Wesley reluctantly became reconciled 
to this fact and accordingly, toward the close of his 
life, instituted measures to prevent the dissolution 
of the societies after his death. By the Deed of 
Declaration, drawn up in 1784, the Yearly Confer- 

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ence was given a permanent legal standing. This 
act secured the property to the societies and gave 
all the congregations a permanent connectional ex- 
istence. But it was not until after Wesley’s death 
(1791) that English Methodism developed into a 
Church, taking the name of Wesleyan Methodist 
Connection. The steps taken after the death of 
Wesley had reference to holding service at church 
hours, which Wesley had opposed out of regard to 
the Established Church, receiving the sacraments 
in their own chapels from their own ministers, lay 
representation in the conferences, and larger liber- 
ties of local societies in the conduct of their own af- 
fairs. 

In polity Wesleyan Methodism is described as 
“neither Episcopal, Presbyterian, nor Congrega- 
tional, but has characteristics of each.” The Yearly 
Conference is the ruling body for the whole connec- 
tion, subject to conditions laid down in the Deed of 
Declaration. It is a threefold conference, being in 
part an assembly of pastors, having to do with 
questions pertaining to the ministry; in part “it is 
a conjoint assembly of ministers and lay brethren 
convened to receive reports, deliberate and deter- 
mine in regard to the general interest of the con- 
nection.” And at the close the “Legal Conference, 
as a matter of necessary legal form and solemnity, 
adopts what has been done in the sessions of the 
General Conference.” The provincial “synod” occu- 
pies a place intermediate to the conference and the 
local, or circuit, meetings. The synod may nullify 
an act of the conference by refusing to ratify it. 

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The administration of the affairs of each society is 
vested in the leaders’ meeting; that of the whole 
circuit in a quarterly meeting composed of the lay 
officers of the circuit. There is also a local preach- 
ers’ quarterly meeting, presided over by the “super- 
intendent minister” of the circuit. 

Divisions in English Methodism have given rise 
to (1) the Calvinistic Methodists, noted above 
(after Whitefield’s death these divided, one branch 
being known as Lady Huntingdon’s Connection. 
It has disappeared. The branch that survives is 
the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists. See “Presby- 
terians”); (2) the Methodist New Connection, 
formed in 1797; (3) the Primitive Methodist Con- 
nection, 1810; (4) the Bible Christians, 1815; (5) 
the Protestant Methodists, 1828; (6) the Wesleyan 
Methodist Association, 1835. The most serious di- 
vision occurred in 1849-57, when a number of min- 
isters and 120,000 members left the main body on 
account of the autocratic rule of Jabez Bunting, the 
President of the Conference. These joined in union 
with the Protestant Methodists and Association 
Methodists and formed the United Methodist 
Church. The three main bodies of Methodists at 
the present time are the Wesleyan Methodists, the 
Primitive Methodists, and the United Methodists. 
There is a small body known as the Wesleyan Re- 
form Union and a number of independent Meth- 
odist Churches. 

Methodism in European countries is represented 
by Conferences and Missions affiliated with the 
Methodist Episcopal Church of America. The lat- 
est returns show: Denmark, 4,575 members; Fin- 

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land, 3,073; Norway, 7,533; Sweden, 16,517. In 
the “Paris Area,” including France and Italy, 8,112 
members; in the “Zurich Area,” including Switzer- 
land, Germany, and Russia, 52,414. 

For British Methodism, and foreign connections 
related to it, the following statistics are taken from 
the Methodist Yearbook for 1924: 


Denomination. Ministers Lay Members 


and Pro- 

Wesleyan Methodists: arg: Beis: 
Great-Rutaing ipo) ko ber 2 2,502 18,452 502,015 
LESSEN he (aiaheapnan Sia Saiai sa aia 231 584 28,031 
Foreign Missions.......... 722 9,665 243,415 
French Conference......... 31 75 1,574 
South? Africas 5007 uss 276 4,773 158,132 
Primitive Methodists........ 1,091 13,939 210,923 
United Methodists.......... 745 423 186,257 
Wesleyan Reform Union..... 24 423 8,593 
Independent Churches....... RYE Yager ees 9,639 
Australasian Church......... 1,083 8,218 160,911 
New Zealand Church........ 181 774 22,916 


The first Methodist society in America was or- 
ganized in New York in 1766 as a result of the 
preaching of Philip Embury, an Irish local preacher, 
who was aroused to duty by Barbara Heck, another 
Irish immigrant. To Barbara Heck, who is called 
the mother of American Methodism, is due also the 
planting of the cause in Canada, whither she re- 
moved with her family in 1774. Embury in New 
York was soon reénforced by Thomas Webb, an 
English local preacher and captain in the British 
army. The work prospered, occupying at first Em- 
bury’s house, then an old sail loft, and in 1768 its 
own church building, “Wesley Chapel,” now John 
Street Church. About the same time Robert Straw- 
bridge, another Irish immigrant, started an awaken- 
ing in Maryland by his preaching, assisted by 

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Robert Williams, who became the apostle of Meth- 
odism in Virginia and the Carolinas. Strawbridge 
built a log meetinghouse on Sam’s Creek, in Mary- 
land, which contests with the New York chapel the 
honor of being the first Methodist church in the 
New World. 

Captain Webb planted Methodism in Philadelphia 
and formed classes in New Jersey and other parts. 
Webb returned to England, and it was through his 
influence that Wesley’s attention was directed to 
the needs in America. At the conference in 1769 
Richard Boardman and Joseph Pilmoor were ap- 
pointed to assist their brethren on this side, and 
they brought over £50 which had been col- 
lected at the conference “as a token of brotherly 
love” for the assistance of the American societies. 
Francis Asbury and Richard Wright were sent over 
in 1771, Asbury coming as “assistant superintend- 
ent” of the new societies. Asbury was soon super- 
seded by Thomas Rankin, who arrived with Wes- 
ley’s authority to become “superintendent of the 
entire work of Methodism in America.” To Ran- 
kin belongs the distinction of convening and pre- 
siding over the first conference in America, held in 
Philadelphia in 1773. Ten preachers were present, 
and 1,560 members were reported, the bulk of them 
being in Maryland and Virginia. The list of ap- 
pointments made at that conference was as follows: 
New York, Thomas Rankin; Philadelphia, George 
Shadford; New Jersey, John King and William 
Watters; Baltimore, Francis Asbury, Robert Straw- 
bridge, Abraham Whitworth, and Joseph Yearby; 
Norfolk, Richard Wright; Petersburg, Robert Wil- 

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liams. The conference acknowledged the authority 
of Wesley and the British Conference and resolved 
that the preachers should strictly avoid administer- 
ing the sacraments, as not one of them had been 
ordained. 

The Methodists in America prior to the Revolu- 
tion, like their brethren in England before Wesley’s 
death, regarded themselves as members of the 
Church of England, and they depended upor a 
grudging English clergy for the sacraments. But 
during the war most of the English clergy left the 
country, and when independence was secured the 
Established Church came to an end in America. 
The war had separated the societies from this 
Church, and it was inevitable that they should now 
become independent of English Methodism and set 
up for themselves. The question of administering 
the ordinances had been up at nearly every confer- 
ence since the first, but “laid over for another year,” 
until at the conference—or a branch of it repre- 
senting the Southern colonies—held at Fluvanna, 
Va., in 1779 it was resolved to refuse the people the 
ordinances no longer. The next year the practice 
was given up in response to overtures from Asbury 
and other brethren. “Certainly it was a modest 
role the early Methodists were content to play—to 
bring the people to Jesus and send them to the Epis- 
copalians and Presbyterians for the sacraments. 
But it was a rdle that could not in the nature of 
things be permanent. For look at the increase, 
2,035 in this fifth year of the war, making 10,539 
in all, and fifty-five preachers.” (Faulkner, “The 
Methodists.”) This anomalous condition came to 


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an end in 1784, the same year that marks the prac- 
tical settlement of English Methodism by the Deed 
of Declaration. Wesley’s famous account of the 
steps he took and the reasons therefor in response 
to the appeals of the American societies is, with 
slight abridgment, as follows: 


By a very uncommon train of providences many of the 
provinces of America are totally disjoined from the mother 
country and erected into independent States. The English 
government has no authority over them, either civil or eccle- 
siastical. ... No one either exercises or claims any ec- 
clesiastical authority at all. In this peculiar situation some of 
the inhabitants of these States desire my advice, and in com- 
pliance with their desire I have drawn up a little sketch. 

Lord King’s account of the Primitive Church convinced 
me, many years ago, that bishops and presbyters are the same 
order and consequently have the same right to ordain. For 
many years I have been importuned from time to time to 
exercise this right by ordaining a part of our preachers. But 
I have still refused, not only for peace’ sake, but because I 
was determined as little as possible to violate the established 
order of the national Church to which I belonged. 

But the case is widely different between England and 
North America. Here there are bishops who have a legal 
jurisdiction; in America there are none, neither any parish 
minister. So that for some hundreds of miles together there 
are none either to baptize or to administer the Lord’s Supper. 
Here, therefore, my scruples are at an end; and I conceive 
myself at full liberty, as I violate no order and invade no 
man’s rights, by appointing and sending laborers into the 
harvest. 

I have, accordingly, appointed Dr. Coke and Mr. Francis 
Asbury to be joint superintendents of our brethren in America, 
as also Richard Whatcoat and Thomas Vasey to act as elders 
among them by baptizing and administering the Lord’s Sup- 
Dern) 

If any one will point out a more rational and Scriptural 
way of feeding and guiding these poor sheep in the wilderness, 


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I will gladly embrace it. At present I cannot see any better 
method than that I have taken. . . . I desired the Bishop 
of London to ordain one, but I could not prevail. . . . If 
they could ordain them now, they would expect to govern 
them; and how grievously this would entangle us! As our 
American brethren are now disentangled both from the State 
and English hierarchy, we dare not entangle them again, either 
with the one or the other. They are now at full liberty simply 
to follow the Scriptures and the Primitive Church. And we 
judge it best that they should stand fast in that liberty where- 
with God has so strangely set them free. 


In fulfillment of their appointed mission Coke, 
Whatcoat, and Vasey arrived in America in 1784 
and immediately got in touch with Asbury and 
other leaders. A conference was called which con- 
vened in Baltimore on December 24 of that year. 
Coke presided and unfolded Wesley’s plan. The 
conference readily and unanimously fell in with it 
and proceeded with the organization of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church in America. Wesley’s ap- 
pointment of Coke and Asbury as superintendents 
was confirmed by election of the Conference, and 
Asbury was ordained deacon, elder, and superin- 
tendent, and other deacons and elders were or- 
dained, Coke being assisted in the ordinations by 
Whatcoat and Vasey. A discipline was adopted, 
containing the General Rules and Articles of Re- 
ligion, abridged by Wesley from the Thirty-Nine 
Articles, the new form being stripped of all dis- 
tinctly Catholic and Calvinistic elements, and a 
liturgy, also prepared by Wesley. The liturgy was 
never much used in the Churches and soon dropped 
out of notice entirely. The same is true also of 
“gowns and bands, which had a brief vogue.” The 

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salary of the regular preachers was fixed at sixty- 
four dollars a year, with an extra allowance for wife 
and children, but “with distinct prohibition of any 
fee or present for marriages, baptisms, or funerals.” 
A fund for worn-out preachers was established, 
supported mainly by the active preachers. 

The Church now set on its way had 104 traveling 
preachers, as many local preachers, 60 chapels, 800 
recognized preaching places, and 18,000 members. 
(Buckley.) “Coke went everywhere, baptizing chil- 
dren and administering the Lord’s Supper, as did 
Asbury wherever opportunity offered.” In 1787 
the superintendents took the title of bishop “for 
brevity’s sake,” and the Conference approved. Coke 
soon returned to England, making thereafter only 
brief visits to America; and the direction of the new 
and rapidly expanding organization came to be cen- 
tered in Asbury, “the chief figure in the religious 
history of the United States in the visible and trace- 
able results of his labors,’ according to a non- 
Methodist observer. In truth, the travels, labors, 
and close oversight of Asbury in America matched 
the work of Wesley in England. “For forty years 
under Asbury the headquarters of American Meth- 
odism was in the saddle.” He traveled 270,000 
miles, ordained over 4,000 preachers, and presided 
in 234 Annual Conferences. Names next to that of 
Asbury in the early history of American Methodism 
are those of Jesse Lee, who entered New England 
in 1789 and after eleven years left that country with 
fifty preachers and six thousand members, and Wil- 
liam McKendree, who, as a pioneer presiding elder, 
established Methodism in the Western and South- 


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western States and after his elevation to the epis- 
copacy in 1808 left a marked impression on the 
whole Church as a preacher and executive. 

The Conference of 1784 adjourned without mak- 
ing provision for another General Conference. But 
Conferences embracing the whole Church were held 
irregularly until 1812, when the first delegated Gen- 
eral Conference came into existence. Annual Con- 
ferences—referring to geographical districts—date 
from 1796, when the territory of the Church was 
first mapped out into Conferences with names and 
definite boundaries. The office of presiding elder 
and the presiding elders’ districts grew out of the 
appointment and ordination of a number of elders 
at the Conference of 1784 to travel over a group of 
circuits to administer the sacraments. 

The harmony among Methodists which charac- 
terized the inauguration of their system of Church 
government did not remain long undisturbed. At 
the Conference of 1792 the Rev. James O’Kelley in- 
troduced a resolution proposing to give the preach- 
ers the right of appeal to the Conference if aggrieved 
at an appointment. O’Kelley was a presiding elder 
from Virginia, at that time the banner Methodist 
State, and he had a considerable following which 
gave his resolution warm support. But it failed; 
and, smarting under its failure and smarting at 
Bishop Asbury, “whose wings O’Kelley had pur- 
posed to clip,” O’Kelley left the Conference, accom- 
panied by a few of his adherents, and returned to 
Virginia. A new sect was formed, taking the name 
of Republican Methodists. These later became one 

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of the elements forming another denomination. 
(See “Christian Connection.”) 

The agitation for larger privileges of laymen in 
the Church came up for consideration at the Gen- 
eral Conference of 1828. An effort was made to 
obtain lay representation in the Church councils, 
but the proposal was rejected. The agitation did 
not cease, but continued until many of the reformers 
were expelled from the Church, and many others 
left out of sympathy. At a meeting of these, held 
in Baltimore in 1828, a provisional Church organiza- 
tion was formed, which, two years later at a more 
largely attended Conference in the same city, was 
completed as the Methodist Protestant Church. 
Within a few years the new organization drew 
away 50,000, many prominent ministers and laymen 
among them. The laymen were given full rights 
in all Church councils, a reform which has since 
been adopted in other branches of Methodism. The 
Methodist Protestant has come to be the largest 
body of nonepiscopal Methodists in the United 
States. 

The slavery question produced the next dis- 
turbance in Methodist history, dividing the Church 
seventeen years before it divided the nation. Prior 
to the division of the Church, however, a small but 
radical antislavery and antisecret society element 
split off and formed at Utica, N.Y., May 31, 1843, 
the Wesleyan Methodist Connection of America. 
The episcopate was rejected, the itinerancy modi- 
fied, laymen were introduced into their Conferences, 
and connection with slavery or secret societies was 


prohibited, The Church began with about 6,000 
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members, which increased in less than two years 
to 15,000; but after slavery was abolished thou- 
sands of its members returned to the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. 

The “bisection” of the Church occurred in 1844 
and was occasioned by the case of James O. An- 
drew, a Southern bishop who had become by mar- 
riage and inheritance a slaveholder. The General 
Conference of that year passed a resolution request- 
ing Bishop Andrew to “desist from the exercise of 
his office so long as this impediment remains.” The 
Southern delegates presented a protest on behalf of 
“nearly 5,000 ministers and a membership of nearly 
500,000 constitutionally represented” in the Con- 
ference. A plan of separation was adopted, and 
after the adjournment of the General Conference the 
Southern delegates met and decided to hold the 
matter of a separate organization in abeyance until 
a convention of representatives of all the Southern 
Conferences could be held. A convention was 
called, which met at Louisville, Ky., in May, 1845. 
At this meeting the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South, began its existence as a separate body. 

After eighty years of separation, and after years 
of discussion and negotiation, a Joint Commission 
on Unification has adopted a plan of reunion, which 
must be submitted to the General Conference of 
each body. The matter will be presented to the 
General Conference of the Church, North, which 
meets in May, 1924, and if adopted by that body a 
General Conference of the Church, South, may be 
called in extra session to consider the plan. 

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At the Christmas Conference in 1784 three elders 
were ordained for missionary work, two of them for 
Nova Scotia and one for Antigua, West Indies. At 
this Conference also Thomas Coke, who was deeply 
imbued with the missionary spirit, raised what was 
perhaps the first missionary collection in this coun- 
try, amounting to $150. Coke, by his tireless in- 
terest in foreign missions and by his own many 
voyages and sacrifices in the interest of the cause, 
left a permanent impression upon both English and 
American Methodism. In 1813 he set out for In- 
dia to establish a mission there, but died and was 
buried at sea. Methodist foreign missions had been 
carried on for a generation, and there were upward 
of one hundred missionaries in the field before a 
missionary society was ever formed. The Bible 
and Missionary Society was founded in 1819, 
changed to the Missionary Society in 1820, and con- 
tinued so until 1907, when it was succeeded by the 
Board of Foreign Missions and the Board of Home 
Missions and Church Extension. The year Ig19, 
marking the centennial of the organization of the 
first Methodist missionary society in this country, 
was observed in both the Methodist Episcopal 
Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 
by special missionary campaigns which provided a 
five-year fund of more than $80,000,000 in the North- 
ern Church, and about $50,000,000 in the Southern. 
The Church, North, in connection with its Cente- 
nary special, undertook to raise also $25,000,000 for 
War Reconstruction, and an increased apportion- 
ment for the other Boards of the Church, making 
a total five-year budget of $113,725,000. Of this 


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sum there had been collected up to May 31, 1923, 
$60,034,056. The Church, South, had collected on 
its Centenary pledges up to October 31, 1923, $18,- 
254,522. 

The Christmas Conference of 1784 also con- 
sidered the “project of a college.” The first ven- 
ture was Cokesbury College, near Baltimore, opened 
in 1787, destroyed by fire in 1797, and never rebuilt. 
Bethel Academy, founded near Lexington, Ky., in 
1794, continues to exist, but after 1805 ceased to be 
a strictly Methodist school. Alleghany College, 
Meadville, Pa., was founded in 1815-17; Ohio Wes- 
leyan University was opened in 1831. Other lead- 
ing institutions of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
are: Northwestern University, Evanston, IIl., with 
a plant valuation of more than $5,000,000 and en- 
dowments of nearly $6,000,000; Wesleyan Univer- 
sity, Middletown, Conn.; DePauw University, 
Greencastle, Ind.; Syracuse Universfty, Syracuse, 
N. Y.; and Boston University. Drew Theological 
Seminary (Madison, N. J.), Garrett Biblical Insti- 
tute (Evanston, Ill.), and the Boston University 
School of Theology are the leading seminaries. The 
Church owns, all told, 45 colleges and universities, 
32 secondary schools, 10 theological seminaries, 28 
professional and graduate schools, 80 hospitals, 38 
homes for the aged, 45 homes for children, and 11 
miscellaneous benevolent institutions. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, held its 
first General Conference at Petersburg, Va., in May, 
1846. It began’ its separate existence with 1,519 
traveling preachers, 2,833 local preachers, 327,284 
white members, 124,961 colored members, and 2,972 


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Indian members. A missionary society was organ- 
ized and a mission in China projected. The Church 
increased rapidly in membership until the time of 
the war. At the General Conference which met in 
New Orleans in 1866, the first held since 1858, the 
statistics showed a loss in membership of 246,044. 
“The Missionary Society of the Church was $60,000 
in debt and the Publishing House practically in 
ruins. Of the 207,766 colored members in 1860 in 
the Southern body, there remained at the close of 
the war only 48,742.” But “the reconstructive 
spirit of this Conference and the statesmanship 
manifested . . . were a prophecy that the ravages 
of the war would soon be repaired.” At this Con- 
ference the colored membership of the Church was 
set off into colored Conferences, and these were, 
by mutual consent, organized into the Colored 
Methodist Episcopal Church in 1870. 

The Missionary Society formed at the first Gen- 
eral Conference was divided into Foreign and Do- 
mestic Boards in 1866; but in 1870 these were 
merged into the Board of Missions of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, South, which administers both 
home and foreign work. The headquarters of the 
Board are at Nashville, Tenn. There is a separate 
Church Extension Board, located at Louisville, Ky. 
A Board of Finance, located at St. Louis, is engaged 
in raising: an endowment fund of $10,000,000 for 
superannuated preachers, their widows and orphans. 
The Board of Education of the Church instituted a 
movement in 1921 for a large educational fund. 
Nearly $18,000,000 was pledged, of which $3,591,469 
had been paid October 1, 1923. 


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By a court decision in 1914 the Church lost con- 
trol of its one university—Vanderbilt, at Nashville, 
Tenn. To repair the loss the General Conference of 
that year provided for the establishment of Emory 
University, at Atlanta, Ga. It has accumulated 
property holdings valued at $1,000,000, and an en- 
dowment of $2,250,000, and has 1,250 students. 
Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Tex. 
launched by the Texas Conferences, and later 
adopted by the General Conference as the univer- 
sity of the Church west of the Mississippi, opened 
its doors in 1915. It has now more than 2,000 stu- 
dents, property valuations of $1,500,000, and an en- 
dowment of $883,333, with the prospect of reaching 
$1,000,000 very soon. Southwestern University 
(Georgetown, Tex.), Central College (Fayette, Mo.), 
Millsaps College (Jackson, Miss.), Trinity College 
(Durham, N. C.), the Randolph-Macon Colleges in 
Virginia, and Texas Woman's College (Fort 
Worth) are the leading colleges. Theological semi- 
naries are conducted in connection with the univer- 
sities at Atlanta and Dallas. The Church owns 
about thirty higher institutions and a large number 
of secondary schools, ten hospitals (not including 
those in mission fields), and 24 orphanages. 

The foundation doctrines of Methodism are those 
commonly held by all evangelical Churches. But 
in Wesley’s time “certain doctrines of the New 
Testament were neglected by the clergy and the 
Churches and robbed of their true proportion and 
emphasis, and these doctrines, which he considered 
vital to the spread of a pure Christianity, he ex- 
pounded, preached, and published.” The peculiar 


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doctrines of Methodism, therefore, have been from 
the beginning of its history those preached and ex- 
pounded by John Wesley. These are found in 
Wesley’s Notes on the New Testament and in his 
published sermons. In American Methodism these 
standards are supplemented by the Twenty-Five 
Articles of Religion which Wesley abridged from 
the English articles. But Wesley’s work was not 
so much creed-building as preaching, with the one 
thing of salvation of souls in view. And in this the 
Church which he founded has retained his spirit 
and purpose. The emphasis placed on preaching 
goes far to explain the success of the Methodist 
movement. “Ata time when the prevailing type of 
Christianity was Calvinistic the Methodists came 
with the gospel of a free, full, and present salva- 
tion, which they preached with tremendous earnest- 
ness and without philosophical refinement.” 

The ten propositions of Bishop John H. Vincent 
express in an admirable manner the beliefs of Meth- 
odists. They are as follows: 


1. I believe that all men are sinners. 

2. I believe that God the Father loves all men and hates all 
sin, 

3. I believe that Jesus Christ died for all men, to make 
possible their salvation from sin and to make sure the salva- 
tion of all who believe in him. 

4. I believe that the Holy Spirit is given to all men to 
enlighten and to incline them to repent of their sins and to 
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. 

5. I believe that all who repent of their sins and believe in 
the Lord Jesus Christ receive the forgiveness of sins. This 
is justification. 

6. I believe that all who receive the forgiveness of sins are 
at the same time made new creatures in Christ Jesus. This is 
regeneration, 


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7. I believe that all who are made new creatures in Christ 
Jesus are accepted as children of God. This is adoption. 

8. I believe that all who are accepted as the children of God 
may receive the inward assurance of the Holy Spirit to that 
fact. This is the witness of the Spirit. 

9. I believe that all who truly desire and seek it may love 
God with all the heart, soul, mind, and strength, and their 
neighbors as themselves. This is entire sanctification. 

10. I believe that all who persevere to the end, and only 
these, shall be saved in heaven forever. 


Methodist statistics are reported, not by States, 
but by Conferences; or, in the Church, North, by 
“Areas,” which are composed of certain groups of 
Conferences. 

In the Methodist Episcopal Church there are 105 
Conferences in the United States, grouped into 21 
Areas, and there are 59 foreign and mission Confer- 
ences. Included in the home Conferences are 21 
colored Conferences, with a Church membership of 
359,838, not reported separately, but included in the 
table below. The membership statistics by Areas 
in this country are as follows (Methodist Yearbook, 
1924): 


Atlanta Area (five Conferences)...... shade ook LO. eae 
BOstnr loll ete ss stare ach ce © eens 145,240 
Bnifalo (4) ier a eee ck aten cc ate tienen 208,953 
Chattanoova.(0)-0 \tsaie a ule cae ohisicie ete 98,752 
Chicago (5) in 2s.5-< teed oes awl tele eit eee 256,318 
Cincinnati (4) 05,5 25 echt kc bee te eee 436,933 
Den Ver Wi janice on xc cake nauk ict eee 71,284 
DET OLEE) Bie ioe se cle Gece re eee 174,896 
Helenad 4) ss) Jt soe a oe aha eee 39,554 
Inidiana polis) (4) 21 glia 8 eictels nie eed ote 297,927 
New: Orleans (6) 5... niacs cares aus ce eee 113,122 
New. York) City (5) i4 7. ti meee eee 217,141 
Dsimiaha i) vor ee ee aetna pee en 283,962 
Philadelphia 44) 3. 4wevcrsca es deen eae 283,493 


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Pitteburaw 4 erin rt eries ne x sinks cane wieys 282,564 
Portland, Oregon (7).....ccecccscesecece 80,476 
Baarits 1 OUiS sO) @ade a edelse wt eie ss os 88 5s 169,075 
SATIRE A ILIGUT Petericiciis was s.5 ete 2 a 0 ace 4 e's 163,222 
San Francisco (7)......seeseeeeees eases 117,498 
Washington, D.C. (4)... .ccccscccescess 263,486 
WN SCRITACCA ) alc olecc phsivie sao oleae: Pes ese 227,672 
Total, United States... ...ccscccccees 4,046,331 
Foreign and Mission Conferences....... 598,799 
Ministers 307 we eras oo wiele Bislales siasctateiale 19,228 
4,664,358 


During the quadrennium (1920-24) there has been 
an increase of 851 ministers and 465,608 members. 
The increase for 1923 was 85,386. 

The congregations of greatest strength (judging 
by salaries paid, exact membership figures not avail- 
able) are, with their salaries: Central Church, De- 
troit, $15,200; North Woodward, Detroit, $13,000 ; 
Madison Avenue, New York City, $12,000; St. 
Paul’s, New York City, $10,000; Hennepin Avenue, 
Minneapolis, $10,000. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, has 38 
Conferences in the United States, and 15 mission 
and foreign Conferences. The membership of the 
Church (including local and traveling preachers) 
in the home Conferences is as follows (Combined 
General Minutes and Yearbook, Methodist Episco- 
pal Church, South, 1923-24) : 


PIAA ste a sews > §$3-513sa Floridatia tics safc = 49,721 
ESPON ATC nt oa gtela sins 2.869, » Holston. -2.). 22. 22. 90,893 
TSB IPTINOCE 2857. 0!a si 5s 83.194 5. Wlinoigs cece. eos 6,743 
Central Texas...... 87,396 Indian Mission..... 4,802 
Oy ee 2,943. “Kentucky... 2.5 06..: 33,891 
East Oklahoma.... 37,524 Little Rock........ 56,841 


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Louisiana... ....... 52,185 South Georgia..... 111,606 
Louisville......... 62,545 Southwest Missouri. 39,666 
Memphis.......... 87,054; ot. Louis tes soeunek 43,249 
Mississippi........ 66,482 Tennessee......... 85,163 
MissOurg.'.', <6:<cies» 49. 601°; Texas. cn es eee 89,345 
New Mexico....... 13,027 Texas Mexican Mis. 2,748 
North Alabama.... 120,206 Upper S. Carolina.. 70,415 
North Arkansas.... 68,268 Virginia........... 149,004 
North Carolina..... 108,516 West Oklahoma.... 35,896 
North Georgia..... 140,226 West Texas........ 44,886 
North Mississippi.. 67,818 Western N.C...... 129,762 
North Texas....... 82,964 Western Virginia... 36,864 
Northwest......... 5,468 Total UiSoo.. 2k 2,430,707 
Northwest Texas... 49,811 Rercizncwnseen 47 916 
Paches von cake 3 15,336 ile sina 2 
South Carolina..... 62,455 2,478,623 


Increase in membership, 1922-23, including mis- 
sion fields, 60,287. 

The Churches in Southern Methodism having the 
largest membership are the following: First Church, 
Houston, 3,408; Centenary, St. Louis, 2,949; First, 
Birmingham, Ala., 2,912; First, Fort Worth, Tex., 
2,709; First, Memphis, Tenn., 2,506; First, Dallas, 
es, 2-400. 

Methodist Protestant Church: Ministers, 1,356; 
churches, 2,379; members, 186,275. The last re- 
ports show a loss in membership. The Church is 
strongest in the States of Ohio, West Virginia, 
Maryland, and North Carolina. 

Wesleyan Methodist: Membership, 21,000. 

Congregational Methodist, organized in Georgia 
in 1852 by ministers and members withdrawing 
from the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, on 
account of dissatisfaction with certain features of 
Church polity: Membership, 21,000. 


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New Congregational Methodist (originated in 
Georgia in 1881): Report for 1916, 1,256 members. 

Primitive Methodist (a branch of the primitive 
Methodist Church of England, strongest in Penn- 
sylvania) : Membership, 9,986. 

Free Methodist: Organized in New York in 1860 
by ministers and members who had been expelled 
or had withdrawn from the Methodist Episcopal 
Church on account of differences concerning mem- 
bership in secret societies and doctrinal questions. 
The new Church took the position that santifica- 
tion is instantaneous and subsequent to regenera- 
tion. The Church is strongest in New York, Illi- 
nois, and Iowa. Membership, 32,053. 


Colored Methodist Bodies 


African Methodist Episcopal Church. Formed at 
Philadelphia in 1815, on the ground that “white 
preachers could not longer maintain pastoral re- 
sponsibility for colored congregation.” Until the 
close of the Civil War it existed only in the North- 
ern States, but its largest membership is now to 
be found in the Southern States. Membership, 
55,176. 

African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. 
Formed in 1796 in New York by colored seceders 
from the old John Street Church. Differs in polity 
from other branches of Episcopal Methodism in 
permitting ordination of women, and presiding 
elders are elected, on nomination of the bishop. 
Membership, 412,328, strongest in the Southern 
States. 

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Colored Methodist Episcopal Church. Organized 
in 1870 at Jackson, Tenn., and composed of the 
colored membership of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South. Present membership, 366,313. 

Union American Methodist Episcopal. Member- 
ship, 18,812. 

Reformed Methodist Union Episcopal. Member- 
ship, 2,126. 

African Union Methodist Protestant. Member- 
ship, 3,750. 

Reformed Zion Union Apostolic. Membership, 
10,000. 

Colored Methodist Protestant: Membership, 1,- 
967. 

African American Methodist Episcopal: Member- 
ship, 5,811. 

Free Christian Zion Church of Christ. Organized 
in Arkansas in 1905 by a company of ministers from 
the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, the Colored Methodist 
Episcopal Church, the African Methodist Episcopal 
Church, and also from negro Baptist Churches, the 
new Church being organized in protest against the 
financial system of some of the Churches. By the 
United States Census reports of 1916 the organiza- 
tion has 29 ministers, 35 churches, and 6,225 mem- 
bers. This Church, however, is usually classified as 
a separate body, and its membership is not included 
in Methodist totals. 

No Methodist reports give us late totals on the 
membership of all branches of the Church in the 
United States. The Federal Council Yearbook for 
1923 gives the following totals: 51,925 ministers, 
65,414 churches, and a membership of 8,262,289. 

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According to the Methodist Yearbook for 1924 
there are 407,264 Methodist members in Canada, and 
this authority gives the total Methodist membership 
of the world at 10,831,810. 


MILLENNIAL DAWNISTS, OR RUS- 
SELLITES 


A NAME somewhat generally applied to the fol- 
lowers of Charles T. Russell or to those who accept 
his theories. In 1866 appeared the first volume of 
a series of religious books by Russell, the whole 
Series bearing the title of ‘Millennial Dawn.” The 
books treat of the second coming of Christ, man’s 
redemption and restitution, and the millennial reign 
of Christ on earth. The title of the books has been 
changed to “Studies in the Scriptures,” and all the 
literature issued by the movement bears titles cal- 
culated “to allay suspicion and to commend the 
propaganda of Mr. Russell and his followers to the 
Christian public,” as “People’s Pulpit of Brooklyn,” 
“International Bible Students’ League,” “Brooklyn 
Tabernacle,” and “Bible House and Tract Society.” 
The works of Russell have been translated into 
many languages, and an enormous circulation is 
claimed for them. 

The following is a summary of the doctrines of 
the Millennial Dawnists (from “Millennial Dawn: 
A Counterfeit of Christianity,” by Prof. William G. 
Morehead, D.D., in the Fundamentals): 


1. Christ before his advent was not divine. 
2. When he was in the world he was still not divine. 
3. His atonement was exclusively human,«a mere man’s. 


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4. Since his resurrection he is divine only, no longer human 
at all. 

s. His body was not raised from the dead. 

6. His second advent took place in 1874. 

7. The saints were raised up in 1878. 

8. Both Christ and the saints are now on earth and have 
been since the above dates. 

9. The professing Christian Church was rejected of God in 
1878. 

10. The final consummaticn and end will take place in 1914. 

11. There is silence as to the person and work of the Holy 
_ Spirit. 

12. As to the destiny of the wicked. (The finally impenitent 
to be annihilated.) 


Referring to the disposition of Christ’s body at 
the resurrection, “Millennial Dawn” is quoted as 
follows: “Our Lord’s human body was supernat- 
urally removed from the tomb; because had it re- 
mained there, it would have been an insurmountable 
obstacle to the faith of the disciples. . . . We 
know nothing about what became of it, except that 
it did not decay or corrupt. Whether it was dis- 
solved into gases or whether it is still preserved 
somewhere, . . . no one knows; nor is such 
knowledge necessary.” 

Concerning the final consummation of the age, 
October, 1914, was fixed by Russell as terminating 
absolutely the present order of things. “Dozens of 
times the writer of these books sets it down as posi- 
tive and unalterable. . . . It is then that the 
millennium, so long expected and so long yearned 
after, finally comes, and the planet celebrates its 
glad, its unending jubilee.” 

Says Professor Morehead, referring to Russell’s 
teaching on the destiny of the wicked: “The gro- 

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tesque subject of one of his most popular lectures, 
a lecture he has delivered throughout our country, 
in Canada, and also in England, and published in a 
vast number of papers and periodicals, is “To Hell 
and Back Again.’ - Crowds have listened with no 
little satisfaction to his assertions that there is no 
hell, no eternal punishment, and no hopelessness 
after death. He holds that in the resurrection, 
which is to include both the righteous and the 
wicked, the gospel of salvation shall be preached 
to all who did not receive it, though having heard, 
while in this life and to those who never had an 
opportunity while in the earthly life to hear and 
believe. For one hundred years the preaching to 
these classes shall continue, and the great mass of 
them will believe and enter into eternal life. Those 
who persistently refuse the offer of salvation and 
reject the Lord’s mercy will be annihilated; an act 
of divine power will blot them out of existence for- 
ever.” 

The adherents of the Russell teachings are not 
organized into Churches or societies, and there is 
no report as to their number or their activities. 
Since Russell’s death, in 1916, the movement seems 
to be losing ground. 





MORAVIANS (UNITAS FRATREM) 


Tur Moravians trace their history back to John 
Huss, the Bohemian reformer, who was burned as a 
heretic at the Council of Constance in 1415. The 
followers of Huss, known as Hussites, were divided 
into three branches, two of which made peace with 

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tn GN NRA ERS BIN Te 


the Roman Church and reéntered that communion. 
The third held out as an independent body, coming 
to be called the Bohemian Brethren. They were 
relentlessly persecuted and scattered, but the rem- 
nant at length found an asylum under the protec- 
tion of Count Zinzendorf in Saxony. They founded 
the town of Herrnhut, which remains the Moravian 
center in Europe. 

Zinzendorf is regarded as the founder of the reor- 
ganized Moravian Church, or Unitas Fratrem 
(Unity of the Brethren). He was ordained bishop 
of the Moravians without, however, severing his 
relation with the Lutheran Church, of which he had 
been ordained a minister. Under Zinzendorf’s in- 
fluence the Moravian colony, by separation from the 
world and diligent use of spiritual exercises, became 
a deeply religious society. But the society de- 
veloped without any purpose of separation from the 
State Church or of denominational expansion, being 
similar in this particular to the rise of the Meth- 
Odist societies in the Church of England. And the 
Wesleyan movement in England was indebted in 
many respects to the Moravians, as John Wesley 
was deeply impressed on many occasions with the 
Moravian doctrines and life, and after his conver- 
sion he visited Herrnhut and studied the system of 
this colony. 

The Moravians established other communities on 
the Continent, in England, and America, sent out 
missionaries to the heathen, and founded schools 
for the benefit of those not members of the society. 
A characteristic feature of early Moravian history 
was its inner mission work, or Diaspora, in which 

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they sought to convert individual members of the 
State Church without drawing them from that com- 
munion. | 

The Moravian Church was planted in America 
by immigrants who landed in Georgia in 1735. Five 
years later this company removed to Pennsylvania, 
where the towns of Bethlehem and Nazareth were 
founded. A form of communism was adopted, 
which, after twenty years, was abolished. These 
colonists were active in missionary labors among 
the Indians in their own and neighboring States. 

The Moravian Brethren were the first Protestants 
to send missionaries to the heathen, and they have 
been noted for their missionary labors, particularly 
in hard and neglected fields. They planted a mis- 
sion in Greenland in 1733 and in 1900 transferred 
this mission to the Danish Lutheran Church, “there 
being no more professed heathen in this region.” 
They maintain missions in Alaska and Labrador, 
among the Indians of North America, the negroes 
of the West Indies, in Nicaragua, British and Dutch 
Guiana, Cape Colony, German East Africa, Aus- 
tralia, and among the Tibetan people of Asia. 
They have a leper home near Jerusalem. Besides 
their missionary operations, the Moravians are for- 
ward in education, maintaining thirty-three schools, 
colleges, and seminaries. 

The Moravian Church is divided into four prov- 
inces for governmental purposes—the German, 
British, and the provinces in North and South 
America. The local affairs of each province are 
administered by a synod. The synod elects the 
executive board, which is composed of bishops and 


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other ministers, and this board appoints the minis- 
ters to the various congregations. Every ten years 
a general synod convenes, composed of representa- 
tives from all the provinces and missions. 

In doctrine the Moravians believe in the total de- 
pravity of human nature. They emphasize the love 
of God, the divinity of Jesus Christ, justification by 
faith only, the person and work of the Holy Spirit, 
the fellowship of believers, and the second coming 
of Christ. There are three orders of ministers— 
bishops, presbyters, and deacons. In worship they 
observe ritualistic forms. The Church maintains a 
strict discipline among its members. 

In the United States there are 142 ministers, 123 
churches, and 23,666 members. In a small body 
known as the Union Bohemians and Moravians 
there are 1,714 members. A small branch known 
as the Independent Bohemian and Moravian Breth- 
ren has 312 members. The Moravians have in the 
world, including membership in missions, 88 minis- 
ters, or, including native helpers, 3,037 and 146,601 
members. This does not include about 75,000 “so- 
ciety members,” or members in the Diaspora socie- 
ties. 





NAZARENES (CHURCH OF THE NAZA- 
RENE) 


Tuts body resulted from a union formed at Chi- 
cago, Ill., in October, 1907, of several Pentecostal, 
or Holiness, associations in the Eastern States and 
the Church of the Nazarene, another Holiness body, 
of California. In 1908 the Holiness Church of 
Christ, an organization of Holiness societies in the 

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arta ami AR SON Ae ati a 


Southwest, went into the union. The membership 
of the associations forming the union had been 
drawn mainly from Methodist bodies, and the new 
Church shows a doctrinal kinship to the Methodists. 
Emphasis is placed upon the depravity of the race, 
the doctrine of entire sanctification as a work of 
grace subsequent to regeneration, and the second 
coming of Christ. The Church opposes the use of 
alcoholic drinks and tobacco and membership in 
secret societies. 

The Church has grown rapidly since the union 
was accomplished, having when the union was com- 
pleted, in 1908, 575 ministers, 230 churches, and 
12,000 members, and in 1922 2,022 ministers, 1,210 
churches, and 47,942 members. It has missions in 
several foreign countries and is very active in evan- 
gelistic work in the home land. 

The general assembly and district assemblies are 
the connectional bodies of the Church. The general 
assembly elects “general superintendents,” who pre- 
side in the assemblies, arrange assembly districts, 
ordain elders, appoint evangelists, and have general 
supervision of the work of the Church. The Church 
has colleges at Bethany, Okla., Wollaston, Mass., 
Olivet, Ill., Nampa, Idaho, Pasadena, Cal., Nash- 
ville, Tenn., and secondary schools at Hamlin, Tex., 
and Hutchinson, Kans. Publishing interests and 
headquarters are loeated at Kansas City, Mo. 





PRESBYTERIANS 


THE term Presbyterian, or Presbyterianism, 
strictly applied, refers only to a form of Church 
government and is not properly applicable-to a sys- 

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tem of doctrine or to forms of worship. The doc- 
trinal system known as Calvinism, while usually as- 
sociated with Presbyterianism, is held by many 
Churches not Presbyterian in government; and, on 
the other hand, there are Presbyterian bodies that 
profess other doctrines than Calvinism. The Pres- 
byterian Alliance, or Alliance of Reformed Churches 
throughout the World Holding the Presbyterian 
System, expresses the common basis of fellowship 
among these Churches. The Alliance embraces one 
hundred and six organizations, Presbyterian and 
Reformed, having about 13,000,000 adherents. 

John Calvin (1509-64), the Geneva reformer, was 
the founder of the Presbyterian system, and his 
teachings form the basis of the doctrinal standards 
of nearly all Presbyterian bodies. Calvin never 
founded a distinct denomination, but he expounded 
and put into practice the principles which in other 
countries and in other hands developed into the 
Presbyterian denominations. Calvin’s influence was 
extended by the wide circulation of his writings 
and by a large number of preachers and reformers 
who visited Geneva from other lands. 

A noted visitor to Geneva was John Knox, of 
Scotland, who had previously embraced the evan- 
gelical doctrines. Knox spent eighteen months at 
Geneva, while an exile from his native land, and 
became a close friend and disciple of Calvin. Upon 
his return to Scotland (1555) Knox stirred the 
nobles and gentry by his fiery preaching, and as a 
result they united in 1557 in the first covenant, re- 
nouncing “the congregation of Satan, with all super- 
stitions, abominations, and idolatries thereof,” and 
engaging to defend the Protestant faith. Three 

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Ti a a i tt ea hs aah a sar eee lad 


years later the Scotch Parliament abolished the 
Roman Catholic system and filled the places of the 
Roman clergy with Protestant ministers. Parlia- 
ment also adopted a Confession of Faith, which was 
chiefly the work of John Knox and Calvinistic in 
theology. In the same year the first General As- 
sembly met, which adopted a book of Discipline. 
This also reflects the influence of Knox; and while 
“it shows the effect of Knox’s stay in Geneva, it 
likewise shows that Knox had a mind of his own,” 
as the Genevan discipline was much altered. But 
in 1578 this book of Discipline was displaced by 
another, which “embodied the purest type of Pres- 
byterianism which had yet been set forth in the 
formularies of any of the Reformed Churches.” In 
the final establishment of Presbyterianism a long 
conflict was waged with royalty and the advocates 
of episcopacy, in which the name of Andrew Mel- 
ville appears as the leading champion of Presby- 
terianism, and to him also is ascribed the author- 
ship of the second book of Discipline. In 1592 Par- 
liament passed an act making Presbyterianism the 
national religion of Scotland. But it was not until 
nearly a century later (1690) that the Presbyterian, 
as opposed to the Episcopal, form of government 
gained the field. In that year the Presbyterian 
Church was again established by law on the basis 
of the Westminster Confession of Faith (which had 
displaced earlier confessions in 1647) and the Pres- 
byterian polity “as administered by general assem- 
blies, synods, presbyteries, and kirk sessions.” 
Presbyterianism in Scotland at the present time 
is represented not only by the Church of Scotland, 
but by other bodies which have withdrawn from 
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the Established Church. The United Presbyterian 
Church resulted from a union in 1847 of several 
small bodies which had separated from the State 
Church. The Free Church of Scotland originated 
in consequence of a collision between the civil and 
ecclesiastical powers, “the civil courts claiming not 
only the right to control the temporalities of the 
Church, but also the power to rule in spiritual af- 
fairs.’ The separation occurred in 1843. In 1863 
an attempt was made to bring about a union of the 
two above-named independent bodies, but the points 
of difference prevented. The desire for union, how- 
ever, culminated in 1900, when the union of the two 
Churches took place, the new body taking the name 
of the United Free Church of Scotland.. A small 
number of ministers and elders opposed the union 
and voted to continue the Free Church. 

The comparative strength of the two leading 
bodies in Scotland is shown by the following fig- 
ures: Church of Scotland, 751,870 members; United 
Free Church, 529,610. Besides these, the following 
are other small bodies in Scotland: Free Church of 
Scotland, 8,192 members; Reformed Presbyterian 
Church, 930; United Original Secession Church, 
3,501. 

Presbyterianism in England traces its historical 
origin to the strong Presbyterian element in English 
Puritanism. Many of the Puritan leaders, to es- 
cape persecution, had spent some time on the Con- 
tinent, where they had come in contact with Calvin 
and the Swiss reformers. The efforts of the Puritan 
party under this influence, from being originally 
mainly spent in protest against “popery,” came to 

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be more and more directed toward shaping the 
English Church after the Presbyterian model. The 
high-water mark of this movement was reached 
during the period of 1640-48. The Long Parlia- 
ment, which assembled in 1640, was dominated by 
Presbyterian sentiment, and it set itself immediately 
to consider the question of Church reform. In 1641 
it passed the famous remonstrance in which it was 
proposed that, “in order the better to effect the 
reformation in the Church, there should be a gen- 
eral synod of grave, pious, learned, and judicious 
divines who should consider all things necessary 
for the peace and good government of the Church.” 
The Westminster Assembly was the outcome of 
this proposal. It convened in July, 1643, and sat 
until early in 1649, during which period it met 1,163 
times. The Assembly formulated a Confession of 
Faith—the Westminster Confession—the Form of 
Church Government, the Directory for Worship, 
and the Larger and Shorter Catechism. The acts 
of the Assembly were approved by Parliament, and 
by an ordinance of that body passed in 1647 Pres- 
byterianism was made the established religion of 
England. This ordinance, however, was never put 
into general effect, and the Westminster Confes- 
sion, while adopted by the Church of Scotland, ob- 
tained only a limited recognition in England. When 
Cromwell came into power he threw his influence 
against Presbyterianism, and its disestablishment 
was completed with the restoration of the monarchy 
(1660), when the Anglican, or Episcopal, party 
came into power. As a result of the Act of Uni- 
formity (1662) more than two thousand Presby- 
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terian ministers resigned their charges or were 
ejected from them, and thousands of members were 
imprisoned or fined. Though all dissenting bodies 
were later given a legal standing, Presbyterianism 
never reached its former strength. 

The Presbyterian Church of England has 84,462 
members. The Presbyterian Church of Ireland has 
106,000, There is also a Reformed Presbyterian 
Church in Ireland, with 3,489 members, and a small 
body known as the Seceder Church. 

The Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Connection, or 
Presbyterian Church of Wales, which is, next after 
the Churches in Scotland, the largest Presbyterian 
body in the British Isles, arose as a result of a re- 
vival begun in Wales during the time of the Wes- 
leyan revival in England. The Welsh movement 
had George Whitefield at its head for a time, and 
their societies were for many years associated with 
the Methodists of England. The Welsh societies 
were severed from the Church of England in 1811. 
This body has 187,575. 


There were Presbyterian elements in the first 
Puritan settlers of New England. The Churches of 
these early colonies were not purely Congregational 
nor purely Presbyterian, according to the Presby- 
terian historian Reed (“History of the Presbyterian 
Churches of the World”), but represented “a Con- 
gregationalized Presbyterianism or a Presbyterian- 
ized Congregationalism.” The Presbyterian ele- 
ments grew stronger with the coming of fresh 
colonists, and the Churches of Connecticut came to 
be known as Presbyterian. But in the end the Con- 


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gregational elements prevailed, and only those 
Presbyterian elements that drifted south and west 
became permanently a part of the Presbyterian 
Church. The beginnings of organized Presbyterian- 
ism were outside of New England and were prob- 
ably made by Francis Makemie, an Irish mission- 
ary sent out by the Presbytery of Lagan in 1681. 
He is called the “Father of American Presbyterian- 
ism.” Rehoboth Church, in Maryland, organized 
about 1684, probably by Makemie, claims to be the 
first of American Presbyterian Churches, though 
the claim is contested. Makemie traversed the 
country from Massachusetts to South Carolina, 
ministering to a scattered population and meeting 
with much opposition on the part of an unfriendly 
government and much persecution at the hands of 
the Episcopal Church, which had been established 
by law in the colonies of New York, Virginia, and 
the Carolinas. In response to Makemie’s appeal he 
was joined by two dissenting ministers from Lon- 
don, and by the end of the seventeenth century sev- 
eral congregations had been formed in Virginia, 
Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New 
York. 

The first Presbytery was organized at Philadel- 
phia in 1706 with seven ministers. The first Synod 
was formed in 1716, composed of four Presbyteries, 
as follows: Philadelphia, with six ministers and 
churches; Newcastle, six ministers and churches; 
Snow Hill, with three ministers and churches; and 
Long Island, with two ministers and_ several 
churches. In 1729 the Synod adopted the West- . 
minster Confession as a doctrinal standard. Dif- 

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ferences on the questions of revivals and ministerial 
education were accentuated by the visit of George 
Whitefield in 1739, and in 1741 a division into two 
parties occurred, which came to be known as Old 
Side and New Side. The Old Sides formed the 
Synod of Philadelphia, and the New Sides, or re- 
vival advocates, formed the Synod of New York. 
It was during the period of division that the New 
Sides founded the College of New Jersey (1746), 
now Princeton University. In 1758 the bodies re- 
united under the name of the Synod of New York 
and Philadelphia. The reunited body had ninety- 
eight ministers and about ten thousand members. 

During the Revolution the Presbyterians stood 
boldly and actively on the side of the colonies. 
John Witherspoon, a Presbyterian minister, was the 
only clerical signer of the Deciaration of Independ- 
ence. After the war the Synod of New York and 
Philadelphia met in May, 1788, and resolved itself 
into the General Assembly of the Presbyterian 
Church in the United States of America. The 
Westminster Confession and Catechisms were re- 
adopted; also a form of government, a book of Dis- 
cipline, and Forms of Worship. It embraced four 
Synods—namely, the New York and New Jersey, 
the Philadelphia, the Virginia, and the Carolina— 
representing a total of seventeen Presbyteries, 419 
congregations, 180 ministers, and about 18,000 mem- 
bers. 

In 1801 a plan of union was entered into with the 
Congregational Churches of New England, which 
still had a considerable Presbyterian element, by 
which Presbyterian ministers might serve Congre- 


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gational Churches and vice versa and also permitted 
the organization of mixed Churches. Under this 
plan Congregationalists going West or South usu- 
ally went into Presbyterian Churches. The plan 
also involved joint denominational agencies for 
missionary work. The plan of union, while it pro- 
moted the growth of Presbyterianism in the Middle 
West, led to a new and more serious division of the 
denomination. Doctrinal differences entered into 
the division, as well as the slavery question in a 
minor degree. The “Old School’ wing were op- 
posed to the codperative plan with the Congrega- 
tionalists, and they resisted what they regarded as 
the invasion of “strange doctrines” from New Eng- 
land and thought that the Church should not pro- 
nounce upon the subject of slavery. Matters came 
to a head in 1837, when the General Assembly, with 
an Old School majority, abrogated the plan of 
union with the Congregationalists, organized a 
Board of Foreign Missions, and excised four Synods 
in New York and Ohio. The excluded Synods or- 
ganized a separate Assembly, and the division of 
the Church into Old School and New School Pres- 
byterians was complete. 

Further divisions occurred over the slavery ques- 
tion just preceding the Civil War. The Southern 
Presbyteries of the New School Assembly withdrew 
in 1857 and organized the United Synod of the 
Presbyterian Church. At the outbreak of the war, 
in 1861, the Old School Presbyteries in the South 
organized the Presbyterian Church in the Confed- 
erate States of America. In 1863 a union of the two 
Southern bodies occurred, which in 1865 took the 

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name of the “Presbyterian Church in the United 
States,” now commonly called the Southern Pres- 
byterian Church. In 1869 the two Assemblies 
which had resulted from the division in 1837 into 
Old School and New School bodies were reunited 
“on the basis of the standards, pure and simple.” 

Early in the century great revivals in Kentucky 
and Tennessee brought up a controversy in that 
section over the reception and ordination of min- 
isters who “were neither highly educated nor firm 
believers in the peculiar doctrines of the Presby- 
terian Church.” The formation of the Cumberland 
Presbyterian Church resulted. In 1903 steps were 
taken looking to a reunion of the Churches. The 
General Assembly of the parent body had added 
new chapters to the Confession of Faith, “not to 
take the place of the Confession of Faith as a doc- 
trinal standard of the Presbyterian Church, but to — 
be an interpretation of it.” The modification, or 
interpretation, proved agreeable to a majority of the 
Presbyteries of the Cumberland Church, and the 
union was consummated in 1906 and 1907. (But 
see “The Cumberland Presbyterians,” below.) 

The Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., is the largest 
Presbyterian body in the world, and its activities 
cover not only every part of the homeland, but it 
is one of the leading denominations in foreign mis- 
sion work. The budget for all the General Boards, 
representing fifteen missionary and benevolent in- 
terests, amounts for the years 1923-24 to $12,312,- 
000; besides, three Woman’s Boards have a budget 
of $2,688,000 additional. The Church maintains 
hospitals in New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, 

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Chicago, Newark, and Baltimore. At the last Gen- 
eral Assembly steps were taken to formulate a plan 
for raising $15,000,000 as an endowment fund for 
old preachers. 

The Church has founded or controls forty-two 


colleges and universities, and twelve theological 
seminaries. The leading colleges are: Lafayette 


(Easton, Pa.), Lindenwood (St. Charles, Mo.), 
Lake Forest (Lake Forest IIll.), James Milliken Uni- 
versity (Decatur, Ill.), Wooster College (Wooster, 
Ohio), and Trinity University (Waxahachie, Tex.). 
The most important theological seminaries are those 
at Princeton, N. J., Auburn, N. Y., Pittsburg (West- 
ern), Cincinnati (Lane), and Chicago (McCormick). 

Statistics (from Presbyterian Handbook, 1924): 
Number of synods, 46; presbyteries, 301; minis- 
ters, 9,979; churches, 9,706; communicants, 1,803,- 
593. Net increase, 46,675. 

The synods having the largest membership are: 
Pennsylvania, 346,669; New York, 246,004; Ohio, 
149,139; New Jersey, 143,980; Illinois, 120,539. 

Churches having the largest membership are 
those at Seattle, Wash. (First), 7,418 members; 
Brooklyn (Central), 3,352; Pittsburgh (First), 2,- 
893; Los Angeles (Immanuel), 2,796; Oklahoma 
City (First), 2,660. 

The Presbyterian Church, U. S. (Southern Pres- 
byterian).—In 1861 the Old School Assembly, meet- 
ing in Philadelphia, adopted resokitions of loyalty 
to the Union and pledged the support of all its min- 
isters and Churches to the Federal government. 
The action caused the Presbyterians in the Southern 


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States to withdraw, and at a meeting held in Au- 
gusta, Ga., in December, 1861, the Assembly of the 
Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of 
America was organized. About 75,000 members, 
including 10,000 colored members, constituted the 
new body. In 1863 a union was effected with the 
United Synod of the Presbyterian Church. Some 
of the border Presbyteries and one or two independ- 
ent bodies were absorbed, adding some 35,000 mem- 
bers. After the failure of the Confederacy, the 
Church took the name of the Presbyterian Church 
in the United States. 

The Southern Presbyterians have a publishing 


house in Richmond, Va. 
The Presbyterian Church, U. S., operates thirty 


schools and colleges. The best known of these are 
the Southwestern Presbyterian University (Clarks- 
ville, Tenn.), Agnes Scott College (Decatur, Ga.), 
Presbyterian College of South Carolina (Clinton, 
Ss. C.), Westminster College (Fulton, Mo.), and 
Daniel Baker College (Brownwood, Tex.). Theo- 
logical seminaries are located at Austin, Tex., Co- 
lumbia, S. C., Louisville, Ky., Tuscaloosa, Ala., and 
Richmond, Va. 

Church membership, 1923, 428,292. The largest 
membership is found in the States of North Caro- 
lina, Virginia, Kentucky, South Carolina, Georgia, 
Tennesee, and Texas. 

The Cumberland Presbyterians.—As a result of 
the great revival which spread over Kentucky and 
Tennessee during the first decade of the nineteenth 
century congregations developed and new ones 
were formed more rapidly than they could be sup- 
plied with well-equipped and ordained ministers. 

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To meet the demand the Cumberland (Ky.) Pres- 
bytery ordained and settled many pastors who fell 
below the educational standards of the Church. As 
a result of this policy the Cumberland Presbytery 
was dissolved by the Synod of Kentucky (1806), 


of which it was a member, and its offending minis- 
ters were prohibited from preaching. On February 


4, 1810, Finis Ewing and Samuel King, two of the 
proscribed ministers, assisted by Samuel McAdow, 
reorganized the Cumberland Presbytery as an in- 
dependent body at the home of McAdow, in Dick- 
son County, Tenn. The revival continued to 
spread; and as the Cumberland ministers were 
much in sympathy with it, the new body grew 
rapidly. In 1813 the Cumberland Synod was formed 
with three Presbyteries. A Confession of Faith 
was adopted, based upon the Westminster Confes- 
sion, but the doctrine of the decrees of election and 
reprobation were rejected. In 1842 Cumberland 
University was established at Lebanon, Tenn., with 
a theological department. Other schools were lo- 
cated at Waxahachie, Tex., Lincoln, Ill., Waynes- 
burg, Pa., Marshall, Mo., and Decatur, IIl., indicat- 
ing the territorial growth of the Church, and a 
publishing house was located at Nashville, Tenn. 
At the time of the reunion with the Presbyterian 
Church, U. S. A. (1906), the Cumberland body 
had twenty-six missionaries in the foreign field, 
besides seventeen sustained by the women’s board. 
There were at that date 114 Presbyteries, 1,514 
ordained ministers, 2,869 churches, and 185,212 
members. Their Church property was valued at 
$7,000,000. 
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The reunion with the parent body, while intended 
to embrace the entire Cumberland body, in reality 
produced a division in that Church. After much 
litigation most of the Cumberland property passed 
to the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A. The present 
Cumberland Presbyterian Church, though greatly 
handicapped through loss of property and the want 
of funds, has managed to survive the “union” and 
is gradually reorganizing and increasing its forces. 
The institutions now under the direction of the 
Cumberland Presbyterian Church are Cumberland 
College, at Leonard, Tex., and Cumberland Presby- 
terian Theological Seminary, at McKenzie, Tenn. 
The last reports show 774 ministers, 1,273 churches, 
and 65,425 members, found mainly in Tennessee, 
Kentucky, Arkansas, and Texas. 


The United Presbyterian Church.—This Church 
was Organized at Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1858, and Pitts- 
burgh and vicinity still constitute its field of activity. 
It is a distinct Presbyterian body in this country, 
being descended by one line from the Covenanters 
of Scotland and by another from the Free Church 
of Scotland, and the elements which formed it were 
mainly from Scotland. It accepts the Westminster 
standards, but differs from other Presbyterian 
bodies in opposing secret societies, observing 
“close” communion, and in using only the book of 
Psalms in Church music. Until 1881 instrumental 
music was forbidden in public worship. Statistics 
Ministers, 959; churches, 929; members, 162,780, 
found mainly in Pennsylvania and Ohio. 

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The Reformed Presbyterian Synod.—Formed in 
1743 by Scotch Covenanters. Members of this 
Church do not vote in political elections, neither 
enlist in the army nor serve on juries. On the ques- 
tion of these civic duties the Synod was divided in 
1833, and the General Synod of the Presbyterian 
Church was formed. They are found chiefly in 
Pennsylvania. The two Synods have 9,920 mem- 
bers 

The Associate Reformed Synod of the South was 
formed in 1821 and has 16,832 members, found 
mainly in the Carolinas. 

Other Presbyterian organizations are the Asso- 
ciate Church of North America, with less than 1,000 
members; the Cumberland Presbyterian, Colored, 
having 13,079 members (membership at present 
unknown). 

Number of Presbyterians, all bodies, in the 
United States (Federal Council Yearbook, 1923), 
2,402,392. 

Presbyterian Church in Mexico, 5,195. 

Presbyterian Church in Canada, 357,211. 

Church of Scotland in Canada, 10,000. 

(For the Presbyterian and Reformed member- 
ship of the world, see the opening paragraph of this 
article.) 

“The Presbyterian Church stands, as it has stood 
during its entire history, for the unconditional sov- 
ereignty of God, for the Bible as the only infallible 
rule of faith and life, for simplicity of worship, rep- 
resentative government, a high standard of Chris- 

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tian living, liberty of conscience, popular education, 
missionary activity, and true Christian catholicity.” 
(Presbyterian Handbook.) 

The Westminster Confession and the Larger and 
Shorter Catechisms form the doctrinal standards of 
nearly all Presbyterian bodies, but all do not agree 
in their interpretation of these standards. The 
Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., has from time to 
time amended and modified the Confession, though 
it “still is substantially as first adopted.” The most 
important changes were made in 1903, when six 
chapters of the Confession were amended and two 
chapters were added, bearing respectively on “The 
Holy Spirit” and “The Love of God and Missions.” 
A Declaratory Statemert, issued at the same time 
and published in the Confession of Faith, says: 


While the ordination vow of ministers, ruling elders, and 
deacons, as set forth in the Form of Government, requires 
the reception and adoption of the Confession of Faith only 
as containing the System of Doctrine taught in the Holy 
Scriptures, nevertheless, seeing that the desire has been for- 
mally expressed for a disavowal by the Church of certain 
inferences drawn from statements in the ‘Confession of Faith 
and also for a declaration of certain aspects of revealed truth 
which appear at the present time to call for more explicit 
statement, therefore the Presbyterian Church in the United 
States of America does authoritatively declare as follows: 

First, with reference to Chapter III. of the Confession of 
Faith, that, concerning those who are saved in Christ, the 
doctrine of God’s eternal decree is held in harmony with the 
doctrine of his love to all mankind, his gift of his Son to 
be the propitiation for the sins of the whole world, and his 
readiness to bestow his saving grace upon all who seek it; 
that, concerning those who perish, the doctrine of God’s 


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eternal decree is held in harmony with the doctrine that God 
desires not the death of any sinner, but has provided in 
Christ a salvation sufficient for all, adapted to all, and freely 
offered in the gospel to all; that men are fully responsible 
for their treatment of God’s gracious offer; that his decree 
hinders no man from accepting that offer; and that no man 
is condemned except on the ground of his sin. 

Second, with reference to Chapter X., Section 3, of the 
Confession of Faith, that it is not to be regarded as teaching 
that any who die in infancy are lost. We believe that all 
dying in infancy are included in the election of grace and 
are regenerated and saved by Christ through the Spirit, who 
works when and where and how he pleases. 


The Presbyterian polity has the following char- 
acteristic features: The Session, which is the local 
Church court, consists of the pastor or a minister 
as moderator and one or more elders, called ruling 
elders, chosen from the congregation. The Presby- 
tery consists of all ministers and one ruling elder 
from each congregation within a certain district. 
The Synod is over a group of Presbyteries and is 
composed of ministers and elders chosen from the 
Presbyteries. The General Assembly completes the 
system and is composed of ministers and elders 
chosen by the Presbyteries. The General Assem- 
bly meets annually. 

There is but one order in the ministry, the pres- 
byter, or elder, who is called a teaching elder in dis- 
tinction from the ruling elder, who is a layman. 
Candidates are ordained to the ministry and in- 
stalled as pastors by the Presbytery. Deacons are 
lay officers in the Church charged with supervision 
of its temporal affairs. 


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PROTESTANT EPISCOPALIANS 


Tue Church of England provided clergymen for 
the colonists in America, who formed parishes 
among them and instituted the Anglican worship. 
The Church of the mother country became the es- 
tablished religion in the colonies of New York, New 
Jersey, Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia. In 
Massachusetts the Anglican Church was not al- 
lowed until it came in “at the point of the bayonet” 
by royal proclamation. But the Church never 
gained the footing in New England that it held in 
the middle and southern colonies. The American 
branch of the Church during the colonial period was 
under the nominal jurisdiction of the Bishop of 
London, who, however, never visited the colonies 
nor provided any adequate disciplinary oversight 
for them. 

During the War of the Revolution many of the 
Anglican clergymen fled the country, leaving their 
parishes vacant. In Virginia, where at the outbreak 
of hostilities there had been ninety-one clergymen, 
only twenty-eight remained at the close of the war. 
But the Toryism so general among the clergy was 
in striking contrast to the patriotism of the larger 
part of their parishioners. From the body of the 
membership of this Church came two-thirds of the 
signers of the Declaration of Independence, the 
commander in chief of the American armies, after- 
wards first President of the United States, and 
nearly all the statesmen who laid the foundation of 
the republic. 

The Church of England in the colonies became 

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the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United 
States. The organization of the new Church was 
completed at Philadelphia in 1789. The movement 
for the organization of a separate Church was begun 
at a meeting of clergymen from New York, New 
Jersey, and Pennsylvania, held in 1784 at New 
Brunswick, N. J. A call was issued for a general 
convention to meet the following year. State con- 
ventions were held which organized dioceses and 
appointed delegates to the convention. But all the 
States were not represented in the convention, and 
the organization was not completed. In the mean- 
time the clergy of Connecticut elected a bishop, the 
Rev. Samuel Seabury. He failed to obtain recog- 
nition by the Church of England, and in 1784 he 
visited Scotland, where he was consecrated by three 
bishops of the Scottish Episcopal Church. Three 
other bishops were elected by State diocesan con- 
ventions—namely, Dr. Samuel Provoost, of New 
York, Dr. William White, of Pennsylvania, and Dr. 
David Griffith, of Virginia. Bishops White and 
Provoost were consecrated by the English Bishop 
in London in 1787. The convention of 1789 recog- 
nized the consecration of Bishop Seabury, and the 
Church was fully organized with bishops of the 
Scottish and English “succession.” A constitution 
was adopted and a prayer book formulated, which 
was essentially the same as the English prayer 
book. The position of the Church, as declared in 
the preface to the prayer book, was that “this 
Church is far from intending to depart from the 
Church of England in any essential point of doc- 
trine, discipline, or worship.” Its identification 


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with the English Church in the popular mind stood 
in the way of Episcopal progress in this country 
for nearly a generation. The twenty clergymen 
and sixteen laymen in the organizing convention 
of 1789 were in 1811 increased by only five clerical 
and four lay representatives. But with the organi- 
zation of dioceses in the newer Western States a 
missionary spirit took hold of the Church, and its 
expansion after 1832 was very rapid. The Episco- 
pal convention of that year took account of about 
six hundred clergymen. Three years later the num- 
ber had increased to 763, and in 1838 it had reached 
O5I. 

The Civil War threatened the integrity of the 
Church. The dioceses in the seceded States con- 
sidered themselves forced to ecclesiastical separa- 
tion, but declared that, “though now found within 
different political boundaries, the Church remains 
substantially one.” The same view was taken by 
the Church in the Northern States. There was a 
complete reunion after the war. The formation of 
the Reformed Episcopal Church in 1873 produced 
the only permanent schism which has occurred in 
the history of the Church. 

The doctrinal position of the Episcopal Church 
is based upon the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds, 
together with the Thirty-Nine Articles of the 
Church of England. The Church considers itself 
“a possible center and rallying point for the reunion 
of the widely varying forms of Protestant Chris- 
tianity in America.” A movement looking toward 
conciliation began as far back as 1853, but it did 
hot find definite expression until 1886, when the 

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House of Bishops set forth as “an irreducible mini- 
mum” the following position as a basis for the res- 
toration of unity among the divided forces of Prot- 
estantism: (1) The Holy Scriptures of the Old and 
New Testaments as the revealed word of God; (2) 
the Nicene Creed as a sufficient statement of the 
Christian faith; (3) the two sacraments, baptism 
and the Lord’s Supper, ministered with unfailing 
use of Christ’s words of institution and of the ele- 
ments ordained by him; (4) the historic episcopate 
locally adapted in the methods of its administration 
to the varying needs of the nations and peoples 
called by God into the unity of his Church. 

The supreme judicial and legislative body of the 
Church is the General Convention, which meets 
triennially. It is composed of two houses—the 
House of Bishops, consisting of all the bishops of 
the Church, and the House of Deputies, composed 
of clerical and lay delegates from the various dio- 
ceses. Every measure to become a law must be 
passed by both houses and must receive the con- 
currence of both orders in the House of Deputies. 
Each diocese holds an annual convention, composed 
of all the clergy and lay delegates from each parish, 
the resident bishop being the presiding officer. The 
diocesan conventions legislate for the internal af- 
fairs of each diocese under certain restrictions. 
Each diocese has also a standing administration 
committee. There are three orders in the ministry— 
bishops, priests, and deacons. Bishops are elected 
by diocesan conventions, but their election must be 
confirmed by a majority of all the diocesan standing 
committees and of the bishops. The bishop resides 

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within his diocese, licenses lay readers, ordains 
priests and deacons, administers the rite of confir- 
mation to members, and is required to visit every 
parish in his diocese at least once in three years. 
The affairs of the local Church are in charge of the 
rector, who is chosen by the vestry of the parish, 
usually after conference with the bishop. The 
vestrymen are trustees of local Church property. 
Wardens have charge of the records and finances 
of the Church. A vestry meeting consists of the 
vestrymen and at least one warden. 

Columbia University (originally King’s College), 
New York, is the leading educational institution of 
the Church. It is nonsectarian, with the exception 
that its president must be a member of the Episco- 
pal Church. Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., Ken- 
yon College, Gambier, Ohio, Hobert College, Ge- 
neva, N. Y., the University of the South, Sewanee, 
Tenn., and Lehigh University, South Bethlehem, 
Pa., are other important institutions of the Church. 
There are about sixteen theological schools, the 
General Theological Seminary, New York, being the 
leading one. The budget of the Church for mis- 
sionary and benevolent work was $4,036,361 in 
1922. 

Statistics, 1922: 6,024 ministers, 8,324 churches, 
1,118,396 communicants. The Church has its great- 
est strength in the States of New York, Pennsyl- 
vania, New Jersey, and Ohio. 

The Reformed Episcopal Church was organized 
in New York City December 2, 1873, with eight 
clergymen, including one bishop and twenty lay- 
men. ‘The bishop was George David Cummins, 

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who had been assistant bishop of the diocese of 
Kentucky until in November of that year, when he 
resigned his office and withdrew from the denomi- 
nation. Cummins became the first bishop of the 
new Church; but the Rev. Charles Edward Cheney, 
of Chicago, was elected Bishop of the West at the 
meeting in New York and was consecrated by Cum- 
mins. 

The new Church justified the separation on the 
ground of the alleged growth of sacramentarianism 
and sacerdotalism in the parent body, “the substi- 
tution of the Roman dogma and rites forthe .. . 
Reformed doctrine and Protestant liturgical wor- 
ship,” and it was alleged that the Protestant Epis- 
copal Church had departed from the beliefs and 
practices held during the early days of American 
history. The new Church holds that the episcopate 
is not a separate order in the ministry, but that 
bishops are primus inter pares. It repudiates the 
dogma of apostolic succession and rejects “as er- 
roneous and strange doctrine that the Church of 
Christ exists in only one order or form of ecclesiasti- 
cal polity.” The title of priest is rejected, and only 
two orders are recognized in the ministry—presby- 
ter, or elder, and deacon. 

The Church for 1922 reported two bishops, 75 
ministers, 79 churches, and 13,022 communicants. 
The movement for reform has a considerable fol- 
lowing in England, where the Church was intro- 
duced in 1877. The English branch had in 1910 
one bishop, twenty-eight ministers, and 1,990 com- 
municants. 

Episcopalian adherents for the world, including 

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the Church of England and its branches in Scot- 
land, Ireland, and the colonies, are estimated 
to number 26,758,267. The number of communi- 
cauts is as follows: 


England. andyWales; au..0e.. See ee 2,400,000 
Jreland (oes sie Soo eee 576,000 
Scoffa tid: e540 A oe ati Meee Ga 56,000 
United States are. eco ee ee 1,131,418 
Rest of world (Canada, Australasia, South 

Afiicg. 0te,) vic. 265 vie ke te 3,000,000 





REFORMED BODIES. 


THERE are four bodies constituting the Reformed 
group in this country, two of Dutch descent and 
two of German. 

The history of the Reformed Church in Holland 
is the history of the Reformation in that country. 
Holland gave to the Reformation its first martyrs, 
the monks John Esch and Henry Voes having been 
burned at Brussels in 1523 for their evangelical 
preaching. The Spanish rulers of the Netherlands 
resorted to the severest measures to crush the ris- 
ing spirit of religious liberty, and under the Duke 
of Alva, who was sent to crush the revolt, accord- 
ing to Grotius, a hundred thousand Protestants lost 
their lives during his six years’ rule (1567-73). 
The rise of the Dutch Republic, under William of 
Orange, accomplished the severance of the northern 
provinces from Spanish and Catholic rule and made 
way for the establishment of the Dutch Reformed 
Church. The first Synod was held at Embden, out- 
side the Netherlands, on account of Spanish perse- 

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cutions. The University of Leyden was established 
soon afterwards. 

While the Dutch Reformation got its first im- 
pulse from Luther, the movement soon came under 
the influence of Calvin and the Swiss reformers. 
The Synod of Dort (1618-19) condemned Arminian- 
ism and adopted canons which were rigorously Cal- 
vinistic. In 1648, at the Peace of Westphalia, the 
Reformed faith became the established religion of 
Holland. The Dutch Reformed Churck is a mem- 
ber of the Alliance of Reformed Churches through- 
out the World Holding the Presbyterian System. 
The branches of this Church in various parts of the 
world have grown up from Dutch immigration. 
There are more than 500,000 communicants of 
various Dutch bodies in South Africa. 

The Reformed Church in America.—Dutch set- 
tlers in New Amsterdam organized a Church in 
1628 under the pastorate of the Rev. Jonas Michel- 
ius. This Church still exists as the wealthy Col- 
legiate Church, with numerous buildings and four- 
teen ministers. Many churches erected on the Hud- 
son by Dutch settlers are still standing after two 
centuries. German immigrants holding the Re- 
formed faith and other elements have entered into 
the growth of the Church in America. In 1792 
the Church set up an organization independent of 
the Church in Holland, but has continued to adhere 
to the standards of the parent Church. The Church 
gave its indorsement to the Westminster Catechism 
in 1837. While in polity the Church is Presby- 
terian, its terminology differs from the Presbyterian 
denominations. It has Consistories, Classes, Pro- 


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vincial Synods, and General Synods, correspond- 
ing to the Sessions, Presbyteries, Synods, and Gen- 
eral Assemblies of the Presbyterians. The Church 
has about two hundred and twenty-five mission- 
aries in foreign fields. It has colleges located at 
New Brunswick, N. J., in Michigan, and other lo- 
calities. The Church is strongest in the States of 
New Jersey, New York, and Michigan. Statistics 
for 1922. Ministers, 774; churches, 736; members, 
141.222. 

Christian Reformed Church.—This body is a 
branch of a Church of the same name in Holland 
which separated from the State Church of Holland 
in 1835. In 1882 and again in 1889 its ranks were 
increased by the absorption of small bodies which 
had split off from the Reformed Church in America. 
It has a seminary and college at Grand Rapids, 
Mich. Membership, 46,413. 

Reformed Church in the United States.—This 
Church, commonly called the German Reformed, 
was planted in America by German immigrants 
from the Palatinate and other districts in Germany 
where the Reformed faith, in distinction from the 
Lutheran, is held. The Church in this country was 
under the supervision of the Church of Holland 
until 1793, when an independent organization was 
formed. Many of the German Churches in New 
York went into the Dutch Reformed body; but, not- 
withstanding these losses, the German Reformed 
has greatly outstripped its sister Church in growth, 
due mainly to immigration. The German body is 
also more aggressive in home mission work. For- 
eign mission work is carried on in China, Japan, 

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and in other parts. The Church has numerous 
schools and colleges. In doctrine and polity the 
German Reformed is similar to the Presbyterian 
bodies, and it is a member of the Presbyterian Al- 
liance ; but in government the Church is more demo- 
cratic and more rights are reserved by the congre- 
gations. The worship is more liturgical. About 
three-fourths of the congregations use the English 
language in their Church services. Statistics for 
1922: Ministers, 1,290; churches, 1,756; members, 
3371526. 

The Hungarian Reformed.—This body in this 
country is made up exclusively of Magyar, German, 
and Slavonic immigrants from Hungary. The 
Church belongs to the Alliance of Reformed 
Churches and is Presbyterian in doctrine and polity. 
Membership, 15,000. 


eR te 


ROMAN CATHOLICS. 


THE full name of this communion is “The Holy, 
Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman Church.” It con- 
stitutes the largest body of Christians in existence, 
numbering within its fold or holding under its sway 
about one-half of the Christian population of the 
world. 

The historical development of Roman Catholicism 
is usually divided into three stages, as follows: (1) 
The age of Greco-Latin Catholicism, extending 
from the end of the Apostolic Age, or the second 
century, to the eighth century; (2) the age of Latin 
Catholicism, as distinct and separated from Greek 
Catholicism, extending from Charlemagne _ to 

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Luther; and (3) Modern Romanism, extending 
from the Reformation (or from the Council of 
Trent) to the present time. 

Concerning the first period, the historian Schaff 
says: “This is the common inheritance of all 
Churches. It is the age of the fathers, of the ecu- 
menical creeds and councils, and of the Christian 
emperors.” But note: “Many of the leading fea- 
tures of Roman Catholicism, as distinguished from 
Protestantism, are already found in the second and 
third centuries and have their roots in the Judaizing 
tendencies combated by St. Paul. The spirit of 
traditionalism, sacerdotalism, prelacy, ceremonial- 
ism, asceticism, and monasticism was powerfully at 
work in the East and the West, in the Nicene and 
post-Nicene ages, and produced most of those doc- 
trines, rites, and institutions which are to this day 
held in common by the Greek and Roman 
Churches.” 

The second period witnessed the division of the 
Church into the Eastern, or Greek, Church, and the 
Western, or Roman. The Roman Church was very 
active during this age in bringing under its sway 
the tribes of Central and Northern Europe. The 
period is characterized also by the scholastic theo- 
logical discussions, by the growth of papal absolu- 
tism, by the Crusades, and by the revival of monas- 
ticism and the rise of the mendicant orders. It was 
this age that gave rise to the abuses within the 
Church which brought on the Protestant Reforma- 
tion. 

The period of modern Romanism was ushered in 
by the geographical discoveries made by Catholic 

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(a evant Ayia eile Siar Seca ie eee 


nations in the New World. These opened up new 
fields of conquest for the Church and-enabled her 
to retrieve in a large measure the losses sustained 
by the Protestant secession. The missionary ac- 
tivity of the period accounts for the Catholic conti- 
nent of South America and the extensive footing 
gained by the Catholics in the early history of 
North America. Missionary operations extended 
also to the Far East. As early as 1549 Francis 
Xavier founded missions in Japan, which grew 
within thirty years to number 200,000 Christians ; 
but bloody persecutions wiped out all but a scat- 
tered remnant of these early converts. Later mis- 
sions in China met a similar fate. 

This extension of the sway of Rome was due to 
the zeal of the Jesuits, or Society of Jesus, an order 
founded by Ignatius Loyola about 1538. This so- 
ciety is also credited with preventing the collapse 
of the Roman Catholic Church in European coun- 
tries where Protestantism had gained a foothold 
by originating what is known as the Catholic 
Counter-Reformation. The Jesuits raised the stand- 
ard of education and morality, and by their en- 
thusiasm and piety they revived the whole Church. 
Their vows included an obligation to go on any 
mission for, or to obey any behest of, the pope, and 
wherever they operated they were regarded as the 
special upholders of the papacy and the most faith- 
ful defenders of the Catholic faith. Political in- 
triguing led to the suppression of the society by 
an edict in 1773; but the order was revived in 1814. 
There are now about sixteen thousand Jesuits 
throughout the world, of whom about one-half are 


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priests. The influence of the order may be esti- 
mated from a statement recently made by a Cath- 
olic archbishop that “the whole Church has been 
Jesuitized.” The head of the order is known as the 
“black pope” and resides in Rome. 

The Counter-Reformation, inaugurated by the 
Jesuits, culminated in the Council of Trent, held 
with intermissions from 1545 to 1563. It was con- 
vened in response to a long and widespread demand 
for reform in the Church “in head and members.” 
But its belated assembling found most of the ardent 
advocates of real reform gone with the Protestants, 
and the reactionary party was left in control. Every 
attack on the papal power failed, as did also every | 
effort to incorporate liberal or evangelical doctrines 
in the creed of the Church. The Council fixed the 
stigma of heresy upon Protestantism and consoli- 
dated the Church by fixing a standard of orthodoxy 
and accomplishing a better organization and dis- 
cipline. The decisions and decrees of the Council 
were formulated by a commission of cardinals under 
the direction of Pope Pius IV. and were proclaimed 
by him in 1564 as the creed of the Church. This 
creed, known as the Creed of Pius IV., together 
with the dogmas proclaimed from the Vatican dur- 
ing the last century, constitutes the doctrinal Sys- 
tem of modern Romanism. 

The nineteenth century was a memorable one in 
Roman annals. Not only were important additions 
made to the Roman creed, but the position of the’ 
papacy was greatly altered. Political movements 
in Europe brought an end to papal temporal sov- 
ereignty by the absorption of the papal kingdom in 

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Italy. But, on the other hand, the spiritual preten- 
sions of the Bishop of Rome attained a recognition 
never before known. Pope Pius IX. assumed the 
functions of a council and in 1854 proclaimed the 
dogma of the Immaculate Conception, thus on his 
own responsibility deciding a question of belief on 
which the doctors of the Church were divided. In 
1864 he issued an Encyclic, together with a Syllabus 
of Errors, “aimed at the basic ideas of modern 
civilization and culture.” But the climax was 
reached in 1870—the year in which the last vestige 
of temporal power outside the walls of the Vatican 
disappeared—when a Vatican council, over the 
heads of strong opposition in the Church and in the 
council itself, ratified the decree of papal infalli- 
bility, and so fixed it as a dogma of the Church. 
This action is regarded as the triumph of Jesuitism. 

But while recent times have seen the perfection 
of the ecclesiastical and creedal system of the 
Church, they have witnessed also the decay in posi- 
tion and prestige of the Church of Rome on her 
own ground. In Italy, until the middle of the last 
century, the clergy, including the religious orders, 
were exempt from temporal jurisdiction, and all pub- 
lic, educational, and charitable institutions were in 
their hands. But in 1866 all religious orders not 
engaged in teaching, preaching, or nursing the sick 
were dissolved and their property alienated by the 
State. In 1873 all Roman Catholic theological facul- 
ties in State universities were abolished. In France 
complete separation of Church and State became 
effective by legal enactment in 1906, when, among 
other provisions, all appropriations for public wor- 


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ship were repealed, and all churches, chapels, epis- 
copal palaces, and parsonages were declared the 
property of the State. In Portugal there is a strong 
movement away from the Church. A _ powerful 
anticlerical party has developed whose program is 
a complete separation of Church and State. In 
Spain, the seat of the Inquisition, there is declared 
to be a gradual, silent revolt of the great body of 
intelligent laymen against the Roman system. “Of 
the four or five million adult males in the country,” 
says Joseph McCabe in “Decay of the Church of 
Rome,” “only about one million are Roman Catho- 
lics, and these are for the most part illiterate.” 
Says another observer: “There are tens of thou- 
sands in the country whose only use for the church 
is at marriages, christening, or burial services. 
This is the feeling that impresses the visitor to 
Spain when he sees the few scattered worshipers in 
the magnificent cathedrals in the cities and hears 
the contemptuous, jesting manner in which the 
average intelligent Spaniard refers to the liaisons 
of the priests, the worship of saints and images, the 
miracles wrought by relics, the pretentious cere- 
monies of the Church, or the solemn assumptions 
of the Roman pontiff.” 

But, as in the days of the Reformation, the 
Church is exerting itself to make up in other direc- 
tions its losses at home. In Germany the Catholic 
revival has been very marked; but it is in the 
English-speaking countries, in England and her 
colonies and in the United States, that the Church 
is putting forth her greatest efforts for adherents 
and power. 

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The Roman governmental system centers in the 
pope, who is regarded by this communion as the 
supreme head of Christendom and vicar of Christ 
on earth. Romanists have constructed a theory of 
the origin of the papacy which gives it divine sanc- 
tion and clothes it with unearthly authority. Ac- 
cording to this theory, the apostle Peter was set at 
the head of the Church by Jesus Christ and invested 
with the keys of the kingdom of heaven; Peter 
became the first bishop of the Church at Rome; and 
“the holy and blessed Peter . . ._ lives, pre- 
sides, and judges to this day and always in his suc- 
cessors the bishops of the Holy See of Rome, which 
was founded by him and consecrated by his blood. 
Whence whosoever succeeds to Peter in this See 
does by the institution of Christ himself obtain the 
primacy of Peter over the whole Church. Hence 
we teach and declare that by the appointment of 
our Lord the Roman Church possesses a superiority 
of ordinary power over all other Churches... . 
This power of jurisdiction of the Roman pontiff is 
immediate, to which all, of whatever rite and dig- 
nity, both pastors and faithful, both individually 
and collectively, are bound . . . to submit not 
only in matters which belong to faith and morals, 
but also in those that appertain to the discipline 
and government of the Church throughout the 
world.”* The supreme authority of the pope, it is 
claimed, extends over the temporal as well as the 
spiritual affairs of the world. Cardinal Gibbons 
(2a o VEE LS SEAR ca Se Ma ES 

*Schaff, “Creeds of Christendom,” quoted in Foster’s “Fun- 
damental Ideas of the Roman Catholic Church.” 

11 161’ 


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maintains that the temporal power is necessary for 
the “independence and freedom of the pope in the 
government of the Church. The holy father must 
be either a sovereign or a subject. There is no 
medium.” The doctrine of the temporal sover- 
eignty of the pope received its authoritative enun- 
ciation in the famous bull of Boniface VIII., Unam 
Sanctam, from which the following is quoted: “We 
are instructed by the Gospels that there are in his 
power [the pope’s] two swords—viz., the spiritual 
and the temporal.” (Reference is made to Luke 
xxii. 38.) “Therefore both are in the power of the 
Church, both the spiritual and the material sword, 

and the temporal authority should be sub- 
ject to the spiritual.” The bull concludes with the 
declaration: “Then to be subject to the Roman pon- 
tiff we declare, say, define, and pronounce to be 
absolutely necessary to every human creature to 
salvation.” 

The pope resides in the Vatican at Rome, “keep- 
ing a court of about eighteen hundred persons and 
maintaining the Curia for the government of the 
Roman Catholic Church at large.” By Italian law 
the pope is independent, and his person is sacred 
and inviolable, like that of the king. The honors 
of sovereignty are due him, and he is allowed to 
keep a bodyguard. Many nations send representa- 
tives to the Vatican as to a foreign nation, and the 
Vatican has “apostolic delegates” at many foreign 
capitals. The pope is elected by the cardinals, who 
rank next to him in honor and share with him in 
the government of the Church. A full college of 
cardinals consists of seventy members. They are 

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chosen by the pope and are consecrated by him, 
when they take the distinctive scarlet dress and the 
red cap. A majority of the cardinals live in Rome, 
where they are at the heads of various departments 
of the Church called congregations, as the Congre- 
gation for the Propagation of the Faith. 

Next in order are archbishops, who are over prov- 
inces, and bishops, who are heads of dioceses, all 
of whom are appointed by the pope. Priests and 
deacons are in charge of parishes and missions. In 
all matters of administration the laity are excluded. 
The educational and charitable work of the Church 
is under the control of teaching and hospital orders, 
of which there are a large number. 

The doctrinal system of Rome, as defined by the 
Council of Trent, consists in a reaffimation of the 
Nicene creed and ten additional articles. In this 
formula tradition is accorded equal authority with 
Scripture as a source of doctrine. The position of 
the Church is stated on original sin and justifica- 
tion; justification is by faith and works conjoined. 
The seven sacraments are fixed and defined—name- 
ly, baptism, confirmation, the Lord’s Supper, pen- 
ance, extreme unction, orders, and matrimony. The 
sacraments not only symbolize the grace, but they 
convey the grace signified. The creed affirms the 
doctrine of transubstantiation and the sacrificial 
nature of the mass, the invocation of saints, the 
worship of relics, the doctrine of purgatory and that 
the souls confined in purgatory are helped in their 
purification by the prayers and masses of the living, 
the worship of images, the virtue of indulgences, 
the supremacy of the Roman Church and the au- 

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pic ane has shy tio ies SN tea TRS aie 


thority of the Roman pontiff, and everything con- 
trary to the decrees of the council are condemned 
and anathematized. The creed declares in effect 
that only those “who freely profess and truly hold 
the true Catholic faith can be saved.” All priests 
and teachers of the Church, as well as all converts 
from other faiths, must subscribe to this creed with 
an oath. The two papal dogmas, that of the Im- 
maculate Conception and of Papal Infallibility, are 
articles of faith and are as binding as the Triden- 
tine Confession. The Article of the Immaculate 
Conception asserts that “the Blessed Virgin Mary, 
by a singular grace and privilege of Almighty God, 
in view of the merits of Christ Jesus the Saviour of 
mankind, has been preserved free from all stain of 
original sin.” 

“In the veneration of saints, relics, images, and 
the worship of the Virgin Mary pagan Rome still 
lives in its ancestor and image cults and its female 
divinities.” Mariolatry is also partly derived from 
the Roman theological view of Christ, which loses 
sight of his humanity in its conception of his awful 
divinity, and the need became felt in the popular 
mind for a mediator between man and Christ. 
Apocryphal writings, filled with supernatural 
legends of the Virgin, have also contributed to the 
rise of her worship. 

In Roman Catholic worship the mass holds the 
central place. The doctrine of transubstantiation 
teaches that the elements of bread and wine in this 
service are transformed into the real substance of 
Christ, he appearing entire in each of the elements. 
' The sacrament is carried on with much solemnity, 


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calculated to impress the minds of the worshipers 
with the feeling that the elements are supernatural. 
Certain orders pursue what is known as perpetual 
adoration of the eucharist, in which one of their 
number is kept in constant adoration and worship 
before the elements of the mass. All services 
throughout the world are conducted in the Latin 
tongue. Singing is restricted to chants by priests 
or choirs. 

The attitude of Rome toward modern institutions 
was defined by Pope Pius IX. in the Syllabus of 
Errors. Eighty “errors and heresies” are con- 
demned, among which are socialism, communism, 
secret societies, Bible societies, and “other pests of 
this description.” The principles of civil and reli- 
gious liberty and the separation of Church and State 
are condemned. The Syllabus asserts the exclusive 
right of the Roman Church to recognition by the 
governments of the world and denounces all other 
religions as unlawful. It declares the power of the 
Roman Church to enforce its system, even by coer- 
cion, and claims for Rome supreme control over 
education, science, and literature. Gladstone at- 
tacked this pronouncement on the ground that it 
was “a declaration of war against modern civiliza- 
tion and progress.” 

The spread of the Roman Catholic faith in Ameri- 
ca began when missionaries accompanied the Span- 
ish explorers soon after the discovery of the conti- 
nent. The oldest Catholic establishment in what 
is now the United States was planted at St. Augus- 
tine, Fla., about 1565. Soon after this missionaries 
preached to the Indians and founded missions in 

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Texas, New Mexico, and California. Jesuit mis- 
sionaries accompanied the French explorers down 
the St. Lawrence about the region of the Great 
Lakes and down the Mississippi basin. Catholic 
settlements in America by immigration began with 
the settlement of Maryland, the only colony set- 
tled by Catholics, in 1634. In nearly all the colonies 
laws were enacted against the Catholics, but full 
toleration came to all religions with the setting up 
of the nation. In 1790 the Rev. John Carroll was 
consecrated the first bishop for America, and Balti- 
more became his first diocese. The number of 
Catholics in the United States at this period has 
been estimated at 25,000. This number soon began 
to receive large accessions by immigration from Eu- 
rope, and immigration has given the Roman Church 
in this country its largest growth. In the earlier 
part of the country’s history the heaviest immigra- 
tion was from Northern and Western Europe, in- 
cluding Ireland, which is almost entirely Catholic. 
During later years the largest influx of foreigners 
has been from Southern and Southeastern Europe, 
where the Catholic population predominates. 

In reporting Roman Catholic statistics it should 
be explained that when membership figures are 
published by Catholic authorities these always refer 
to “estimated population,” which is a method never 
followed by Protestant bodies. Careful estimates, 
we are told (Federal Council Yearbook, 1923, page 
401), show that, in order to place Protestant statis- 
tics on the same basis as Roman Catholic statistics, 
a multiple of 2.8 should abi to the former. 

I 


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Roman Catholic population in the United States 
is reported for 1922 at 18,104,804. 

The leading Catholic centers, by dioceses, as re- 
ported in the Official Catholic Directory, are: New 
York, 1,325,000; Chicago, 1,150,000; Boston, 900,- 
000; St. Louis, 701,000; Brooklyn, 803,000; Hart- 
ford, 519,000; Detroit, 501,000. 

Other Catholic statistics for the United States 
(from Official Catholic Directory, quoted in the 
World Almanac): Archbishops, 16; bishops, 94; 
secular clergy, 15,389; religious clergy, 5,630; total 
clergy, 21,129; churches with resident priests, Io,- 
608; missions with churches, 5,573; total churches, 
16,181; seminaries, 110; colleges for boys, 211; 
academies for girls, 700; parishes with schools, 5,- 
852; orphan asylums, 296; orphans, 45,687; homes 
for the aged, 121. 

The Roman Catholic population of the world is 
given as follows (from World Almanac): Europe, 
195,000,000; Asia, 10,000,000; Africa, 3,000,000; 
North and Central America, 37,000,000; South 
America, 35,000,000; Australasia, 8,000,000. Total 
288,000,000. 


OtuHer CaTHoLic BopiEs 


Old Catholics —The Old Catholics were organ- 
ized in Germany in 1870 as a result of the Vatican 
decree of papal infallibility. The opponents of the 
decree, headed by Dr. Ignace von Dollinger, a 
Munich professor, gathered at Nuremberg and is- 
sued a protect. The leaders in the movement were 
promptly excommunicated. An Old Catholic con- 
gress was called, which met in Munich in 1871, at- 

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ei ge ee a 


tended by about three hundred delegates from near- 
ly all the countries of Northern and Western Eu- 
rope. The movement spread rapidly in Germany, 
Switzerland, Holland, and Austria. There are 
members of the body also in France, Spain, Portu- 
gal, and Mexico. The dogmas of papal infallibility 
and of the immaculate conception are rejected, as 
well as the doctrine of priestly absolution. Confes- 
sion, indulgences, and the veneration of saints and 
images have been greatly modified. Priests are al- 
lowed to marry. The Church has bishops, chosen 
by the clergy and people together. The chief gov- 
erning body is the synod. In the United States the 
Church has taken root among the Polish and Bo- 
hemian populations, taking the name among the 
Poles of the Independent Catholic Church and 
among the Bohemians, particularly in Ohio, of the 
National Catholic Church. The Polish Catholics 
number about 28,000. There is also an American 
Catholic, with 1,150 members, and a Lithuanian 
National Catholic Church, having 7,343 members, 
both in full accord with the Old Catholic move- 
ment. 

Uniate Churches.—These are scattered groups of 
Churches which acknowledge the Roman pontiff, 
but are permitted to retain their traditional beliefs 
and practices. They are found mainly in South- 
eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa, and take different 
names according to the language or rite used in 
their worship; as the Greek, Arminian, Syrian, or 
Coptic in distinction from the Roman, or Latin, rite. 

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Their priests are allowed to marry, and in other 
respects they differ from the customs of Rome. 
Their government is provided for by a special com- 
mission at Rome. Adherents of these Churches in 
the United States number about ten thousand, their 
presence being due wholly to immigration. 





SALVATION ARMY 


Tue Salvation Army owes its origin to William 
Booth and his wife, Catherine Mumford Booth, 
who is called the mother of the Salvation Army. 
William Booth was successively a street preacher 
in London, an evangelist in the ranks of the Meth- 
odist New Connection, and a circuit pastor. In 
1861 he severed his connection with the Methodists 
and became an independent evangelist. His wife, 
whom he married in 1855, had already become a 
preacher and had often occupied her husband’s pul- 
pit. Together they now engaged in mission work 
in the notorious East End of London, where they 
found the destitute, vicious, and neglected classes. 
They called their work simply the Christian Mis- 
sion. It took the name of Salvation Army in 1878 
from the statement used by Booth in describing it. 
“The Christian Mission,” he said, “is a salvation 
army of converted working people.” Booth had 
long been called the “general” on account of his 
oversight of the work; and after long and careful 
study of the manuals of the British army, the mis- 
sion forces were organized on a military basis. 

In 1880 the work was extended to America, and 


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it has spread to other lands, until now it is repre- 
sented in sixty countries and colonies and preaches 
its gospel in thirty-nine languages. It reports 
for the world 9,673 corps and outposts, 1,173 
social institutions, 611 day schools, and 17 naval 
and military homes. The Army issues from its 
own presses eighty-one periodicals, besides other 
publications. 

The operations of the Salvation Army are con- 
fined to the cities and consist of evangelistic work, 
aiming at conversion, and social, aiming at better- 
ment of the condition of the destitute and the crimi- 
nal classes. Their converts may join their own 
ranks, but many of them go into the various 
Churches. The Army has no ecclesiastical ma- 
chinery, and Church terminology is not used. Its 
head is called commander in chief (the present 
commander is Bramwell Booth, son of the founder). 
The organization is completed by a chief of staff, 
stationed at headquarters; a lieutenant general, who 
travels and inspects divisions; a general, command- 
ing a division; a captain, commanding a single 
corps, who has under him a lieutenant, a color ser- 
geant, a paymaster sergeant, and other minor of- 
ficers. All officers wear uniforms, and places of 
meetings are called barracks. A book of doctrine 
and discipline, prepared by the founder, outlines the 
doctrines to be preached, which are in the main 
Methodistic, and containing rules and regulations 
for the government of the body. 

The headquarters of the Salvation Army are in 
London. The headquarters for the American work 
are in New York, with Miss Evangeline Booth in 


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charge. There is also a Central Department, with 
headquarters in Chicago, and a Department of the 
West, with headquarters at San Francisco. 

The following statistics of the work in the United 
States are for the year ending September 30, 1921: 


SSO -OULTIISES Slice tc ce meees Chwle ck 1,117 
Wiiicers*and cadeta sti eral Giese siete ess 3,728 
STIOORE IDOLE INGE ee kt ial odes ek 219,442 
CPOE My MECHNES 16 ok sisles cco ec aw sie « 176,495 
RAMIVOPEN or etre, Pl kok Slee a son 80,566 
RICEPISINeR eee ei, omer iy de 67 
Peatela-tWomen)iis ws oles CoG bs oe 4 Soa 2 
Young women’s boarding houses......... 11 
BIMOMETEIAL SOMES 18 oe ogy s dipisikae vie a 88 
SOLER MEPLOMCS St tora te i ke ote 6 
Slum posts and nurseries................ 12 
RRM CE Ue Cn das bee bapene 23,112 
Sepeimem eheiterad. foie sic ecole» exe pusel ees 76,615 
Rescue homes and maternity hospitals.... 29 
WeMEEMTERCECAASE LOE fe... shagt-sn s a¥or es aldara box os aes 4,393 
Prison work: Hours spent in visiting...... 19,964 
Prisoners prayed with................ 44,777 
Prisoners assisted on discharge and situ- 
SS g PSPS, GRA ie te CaM, Gem as 9,007 
SOIT S tay ie eek wengee < hence FS ee 10,203 
Christmas dinners served............... 293,171 
Thanksgiving dinnere.-c.'s ss cesses eesces 15,603 
Pounds of ice distributed............... 336,478 
Pounds of coal distributed. ............. 3,274,591 
Hospitals and dispensaries.............. 6 
oo TO SR EE a ee RP ary epee Pee 23,776 


American Rescue Workers.—A branch of the 
Salvation Army, formed by a number of officers who 
withdrew in 1882. The branch first took the name 
of “Salvation Army of America,” but the name was 


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changed in 1913 to American Rescue Workers. 
Headquarters.are at Philadelphia. 

Volunteers of America.—This is an organization 
formed in New York City in 1896 by Ballington 
Booth, who was commander of the American 
work of the Salvation Army. Owing to disagree- 
ments with his father, Gen. William Booth, con- 
cerning the work in this country, Ballington Booth 
and his wife, Maude Ballington Booth, separated 
from the Salvation Army and organized the Vol- 
unteers of America. Its organization is based 
upon that of the United States army, and its 
government is more democratic. The Volun- 
teers are more closely related to the Churches, 
and they administer the sacraments of the Lord’s 
Supper and baptism. The work is among the same 
classes and along the same lines as that of the Sal- 
vation Army, and the forces of the new organiza- 
tion have extended to all the principal centers of 
the United States. An additional feature is the 
Volunteer Prisoners’ League for reforming prison- 
ers, with branches in thirty State prisons. The 
headquarters are in New York City. 





SCANDINAVIAN EVANGELICAL CHURCHES 


Tuese are Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish 
bodies, formed as a result of secessions from the 
State Churches in the countries named, and origi- 
nating in a more evangelical tendency which de- 
veloped during the last century. The churches in 
this country are composed entirely of immigrants 
from the Scandinavian countries. There are three 

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bodies, as follows: Swedish Evangelical Mission 
Covenant of America, having 30,000 members; 


Swedish Evangelical Free Cnurch, with 6,208; Nor- 
wegian-Danish Free Church, 2,817. 





SCHWENCKFELDERS 


A SMALL body of followers of Kasper von 
Schwenckfeld, a German religious teacher of 
Luther’s time. About two hundred Schwenck- 
felders emigrated to America in 1734 and settled . 
in Pennsylvania. The sect has increased but slow- 
ly and still is found only in the counties in Penn- 
sylvania where the first members settled. 

Among the peculiar customs of the Schwenck- 
felders is a service of prayer and exhortation over 
newly born infants as they are presented at church 
for the first time. They are opposed to war, secret 
societies, and the oaths of law. They support mis- 
sions at home and contribute to foreign missions 
through other denominations. 

_ The body has five ministers, six churches, and 

1,362 members. 


SOCIAL BRETHREN 


Tuts body was formed in Illinois after the Civil 
War by members of various denominations who 
were opposed to politics in the pulpit. “It is quite 
evident,” says Dr. Carroll, “that the denomination 
was originally formed of Baptists and Methodists, 
the ideas of both of these denominations and some 


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of their usages being incorporated in the new body.” 
But Methodist beliefs and usage seem to predomi- 
nate, as among their beliefs-is that of the possibility 
of apostasy; also baptism may be by pouring, 
sprinkling, or immersion, and open communion is 
practiced. They hold that “ministers are called of 
God to preach the gospel and that only.” 

The body is found only in Illinois, Missouri, and 
Arkansas. It has by last reports ten ministers, 19 
churches, and 950 members. 





SOCIETY FOR ETHICAL CULTURE 
ForMEpD in New York in 1876 by Dr. Felix Adler, 
societies have since been organized in Philadelphia, 
Chicago, Brooklyn, St. Louis, and Boston; also in 


England and Germany. There is an American 
Ethical Union and an International Ethical Union. 


The purpose of these societies, as officially stated, 
is “to assert the supreme importance of the ethical 
factor in all the relations of life—personal, social, 
national, and international—apart from any theo- 
logical or metaphysical considerations.” 

The American Societies have 3,210 members. 





SPIRITUALISTS 


THE first spiritualistic “phenomena” known in 
this country began to occur about 1837 among the 
Shakers in New York, who claimed to receive com- 
munications from Ann Lee, the departed founder 
of the society. The first demonstrations that ex- 


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cited public attention were in the home of John D. 
Fox, at Hydersville, near Rochester, N. Y., whose 
daughters, the “Fox sisters,” are generally credited 
with being the first mediums. These manifestations 
began in 1848. It was an era of religious unrest, of 
strange doctrines, visions, and miracles. Belief in 
ghosts and witches was common, and prophets 
were numerous. William Miller, the Adventist 
prophet, had summoned a doomed world to judg- 
ment, publishing proofs that the end would come 
about the year 1843. Only a few miles from the 
Fox home Joseph Smith, guided and attended by 
visions of angels, had brought the Mormon Bible to 
light. The popular mind was in a state of feverish 
expectancy, ready to believe any new thing. The 
announcement of the wonders performed by the Fox 
sisters attracted crowds of people to the seances, 
and spiritualism immediately excited widespread 
interest and investigation. Circles were formed, 
mediums discovered, and lecturers traveled and dis- 
coursed on the latest discovery. 

The new mystery expressed itself in raps and 
knockings, moving of furniture, etc., which were in- 
terpreted as the language of the spirits of departed 
persons endeavoring to communicate with the liv- 
ing. Other methods of communication were 
adopted, as slate-writing. The movement became 
so infected with charlatanism and fraud as to be 
discredited by the more intelligent observers. 

The study of psychology, hypnotism, telepathy, 
and kindred subjects has revived an ‘interest in 
Spiritualism, both in this country and Europe, and 
the subject has attained more respectability on ac- 


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count of some of the eminent scientists and investi- 
gators whose interest it has engaged. 

Spiritualists in this country have formed them- 
selves into societies, with national and State as- 
sociations, and have issued a statement of beliefs. 
Their central tenet is a belief in the actuality of 
spiritual communicatons. They deny the person- 
ality of God, holding that God is an infinite intelli- 
gence expressed by the physical and spiritual phe- 
nomena of nature. They reject the doctrine of the 
Trinity, the deity of Christ, and the supreme au- 
thority of the Scriptures. They believe in the con- 
scious existence of the spirit after death and in eter- 
nal progress. In common with the Universalists, 
they believe that every individual will attain to su- 
preme wisdom and happiness. They have ordained 
ministers, lay ministers, and associate ministers, or 
mediums. They have a ritual for use in public 
meetings, baptisms, funerals, etc. 

The National Spiritualists’ Association was or- 
ganized in 1893, with headquarters at Washington, 
D. C. There are twenty-four State associations. 
They report six hundred active working local socie- 
ties and four hundred societies which meet at irregu- 
lar intervals. There are thirty-two camp meeting 
associations, 200 churches and temples, 1,500 public 
mediums, and 500 ordained ministers. 

The statement of the National Association of 
Spiritualists claims “membership of avowed Spirit- 
ualists, 600,000; unidentified with organized socie- 
ties, but believers in the philosophy and phenomena 
of spiritualism and frequent attendants upon pub- 
lic services, 1,500,000 to 2,000,000.” This statement 

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gives a total valuation of church, temple, and camp 
meeting property of $6,000,000. 

Massachusetts is the banner Spiritualist State, 
followed by New York and Pennsylvania. 





THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETIES 

HELENA Petrovna Briavatsky, a Russian woman, 
founded the first Theosophical Society in New York 
in 1875. Its avowed objects were: (1) To form the 
nucleus of a universal brotherhood of humanity ; (2) 
to study and teach the ancient religious, philoso- 
phies, and sciences; (3) to investigate the laws of 
nature, and to develop the divine powers latent in 


man. Madame Blavatsky wrote a book, called “The 
Secret Doctrine,’ which sets forth her principles, 


now known as Theosophy. She professed to have 
received instructions from unseen Masters. Accom- 
panied by a disciple, she went to India and estab- 
lished several branches in that country. Societies 
have been formed also in England. Dissensions in 


the original Society have resulted in the formation 
of others in this country, and there are now four, 


as follows: The Theosophical Society, with head- 
quarters in New York; Theosophical Society, Ameri- 
can Section, headquarters, Chicago; Universal 
Brotherhood and Theosophical Society, Point 
Loma, Cal.; and Theosophical Society (Independ- 
ent), New York. The membership of all these So- 
cieties is reported at 64,126, the California Society 
being credited with 56,067 of these. 


HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 





UNITARIANS 


“UNITARIANISM,” to quote a Unitarian author, “is, 
in general, the religious system of all who affirm the 
unity of God. Specifically, it is the belief of certain 
free Christian Churches and individuals whose re- 
ligious faith is ‘the fatherhood of God, the brother- 
hood of man, the leadership of Jesus, salvation by 
character, and the progress of mankind onward and 
upward forever.” Unitarianism is popularly 
known only in its negative aspects, in its rejection 
of the orthodox views of the Trinity, the person of 
Jesus Christ, and of the authority of the Bible. 

Unitarians point to the Arian views of Jesus, as 
held in the early Church, as essentially in harmony 
with the modern Unitarian position. Unitarianism 
may be traced to the Reformation period, when in 
the theological ferment of the times anti-Trinitarian 
views gained a following. Michael Servetus, in the 
West, assailed the doctrine of the Trinity and was 
burned at the stake in Geneva in 1553. But it was 
Faustus Socinus, coming from Italy and settling in 
Poland in 1575, who became the chief exponent 
of Unitarian doctrines. The central point in the 
Socinian creed was denial of the divinity and atone- 
ment of Jesus Christ. At the close of the sixteenth 
century there were more than four hundred Socin- 
ian churches in Poland. By 1670, however, Uni- 
tarianism had been suppressed in Poland by the 
accession of a Catholic king and the adherents of 
the faith put to death or exiled. 

In the eighteenth century Socinian views leavened 
many Presbyterian and Baptist Churches in Eng- 
land, as well as many of the clergy of the Church of 

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England. It was from these communions that the 
first Unitarian Churches were formed. In tIgrt 
there were two hundred and ninety-five Unitarian 
churches in England, seven in Scotland, thirty-four 
in Wales, and thirty-eight in Ireland, the Churches 
in Wales and Ireland having been formerly Presby- 
terian. 

Unitarian opinions were held by many of the 
Puritan settlers of New England, and a majority of 
the early Massachusetts Churches finally went over 
to the Unitarian faith. King’s Chapel in Boston, 
the first Episcopal church established in New Eng- 
land, in 1787 excluded from its prayer book all ref- 
erences to the Trinity and to the deity of Jesus 
Christ, and, ordaining for its pastor James Freeman, 
a reader who had adopted Unitarian views, the 
Church became the first Unitarian society in Ameri- 
ca. During the early part of the nineteenth century 
the Unitarian controversy—or the Calvinistic con- 
troversy, according as one views it—unsettled 
many of the Congregational Churches in Massa- 
chusetts. The Unitarians directed their criticisms 
mainly against the Calvinistic view of man’s fallen 
nature. In 1805 a Unitarian was appointed to the 
divinity chair of Harvard College, and that insti- 
tution came completely under the control of liberal 
views. In 1819 William Ellery Channing preached 
a sermon at the dedication of a Unitarian church in 
Baltimore which, on account of its “moral argu- 
ment against Calvinism,’ became a Unitarian 
classic. Within a year one hundred and twenty 
‘Congregational Churches in New England, among 


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them Plymouth Church, founded in 1620, went over 
to Unitarianism. 

The Unitarians as a denomination have rejected 
all suggestions of creed-forming; but the National 
Unitarian Conference has declared that “these 
Churches accept the religion: of Jesus, holding in 
accordance with his teaching that practical religion 
is summed up in love to God and love to man.” 
Unitarian congregations usually adopt the follow- 
ing covenant: “In the love of truth and the spirit of 
Jesus Christ we unite for the worship of God and 
the service of man.” Unitarians are generally in 
agreement on the doctrines of the “pure humanity 
of Jesus,” and his “leadership” is accepted, he being 
“a supreme instance of man’s religious experience 
of God and an inspiring prophet of a free and spirit- 
ual religion of love to God and man.” It is the faith 
of Jesus that is held rather than faith im Jesus. 
The Bible is not a final and infallible guide in re- 
ligious truth, but “a classic record of man’s religious 
experience,” and is to be interpreted in the light of 
reason and conscience. “It is not proper to say that 
we reject the Bible,” says a Unitarian minister, “as 
it is not proper to say that we reject a fish because 
we discard the bones.” Unitarians reject the ortho- 
dox doctrines of the fall of man, of the natural cor- 
ruption of his nature, and of the atoning or sacri- 
ficial character of the death of Christ as a means of 
man’s recovery. They discover no need of a media- 
tor between God and man. But they affirm the 
natural dignity of human nature and the kinship of 
man to God. Salvation is the enjoyment of com- 
munion with God, “the soul fulfilling its destiny of 

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enjoying the constant indwelling presence of God 
with a consciousness like that of Christ.” It is to 
be sought and gained “through the exercise of the 
soul’s highest powers and the repression of all low 
desires.” 

There is no later report of Unitarian numbers 
than the census bulletin of 1916. They are credited 
with 492 ministers, 448 churches, and 82,515 mem- 
bers. The body has theological schools at Meade- 
ville, Pa., and Berkeley, Cal. The Harvard Divinity 
School was Unitarian from 1817 to 1878, since which 
time it has been undenominational. About one- 
half of the Unitarian membership of the country is 
in Massachusetts. New York, California, New 
Hampshire, and Maine has each a large member- 
ship. 


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UNITED BRETHREN 


Tus denomination is often confounded with the 
Moravian Brethren, or Unitas Fratrem; but the two 
bodies are separate and distinct. While they bear 
similar names and both originated among German 
people, the Unitas Fratrem originated in Moravia 
and the United Brethren arose in the United States, 
although the former had a footing in this country 
more than half a century before the latter organi- 
zation took its rise. 

Philip William Otterbein came to America in 
1752 as a missionary of the German Reformed 
Church. Soon afterwards he obtained what he re- 
garded as his first Christian experience, and his 
ministry took on a deeply spiritual and evangelistic 

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character. Revivals followed his preaching, and he 
was joined by many of his converts in extending 
the work. The movement continued to spread, and, 
on account of opposition to the work in his own 
Church, conferences were called to provide means 
for conserving the results. At a conference held 
in Frederick County, Md., in 1800 a Church organi- 
zation was formed, taking the name of the United 
Brethren in Christ. Otterbein and Martin Boehm 
were elected bishops. In 1815 a general confer- 
ence was held, at which a discipline and a Confes- 
sion of Faith were adopted. During the first years 
of the movement the work was confined mainly to © 
the German people of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 
and Maryland; but in later years the Church spread 
westward and was extended among English-speak- 
ing people. Now the German language is used in 
only about four per cent of the congregations. 

The founders of the United Brethren Church 
were in intimate association with the pioneers of 
Methodism in America. Otterbein assisted at the 
ordinations of Methodist ministers at the Baltimore 
Conference in 1784, and in his evangelistic labors 
he preached the same doctrines and proceeded in 
much the same way as the Methodist preachers. 
In doctrine and polity the Church which he organ- 
ized is Methodistic, and the body is represented in 
the Methodist ecumenical councils. The Church 
has bishops, presiding elders, exhorters, class lead- 
ers, and stewards; also quarterly, annual, and gen- 
eral conferences. Bishops are elected for a four- 
year tenure. Since 1889 women are eligible for the 
ministry. But one order of ministers, that of elder, 
is recognized, The mode of baptism is left to the 

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choice of the candidate. Foot-washing is practiced, 
but is not generally observed. Ministers are ap- 
pointed to their charges by a stationing committee, 
and presiding elders are elected by the annual con- 
ferences. 

A new constitution and a revised Confession of 
Faith were adopted by the General Conference in 
1889. Provision was made for lay representation 
in the General Conference, and a rule was set aside 
forbidding membership in secret societies. A bishop 
and fourteen delegates, taking offense at the new 
constitution, withdrew from the body and organized 
another General Conference, which claimed to rep- 
resent the sentiment of the Church. The division 
extended throughout the Church. Litigation over 
property division followed, resulting in a decision 
against the seceding body. The Churches are now 
known as the “New Constitution” and the “Old 
Constitution” branches. The New Constitution 
body has foreign missions in Germany, Japan, 
Canada, and Africa, ten colleges, and a theological 
seminary and a publishing house at Dayton, Ohio. 
The Church is divided into about fifty Annual Con- 
ferences and mission districts, has 1,944 ministers, 
3,285 churches, and 370,628 members. The head- 
quarters of the Old Constitution Church are at 
Huntingdon, Ind., where they have a college and 
publishing house. This branch has 367 ministers, 
409 churches, and 19,344 members. 

The United Brethren are strongest in the States 
of Ohio (76,595), Pennsylvania (68,016), Indiana 
(57,093), Illinois (22,036), West Virginia, Virginia, 

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and Kansas, although they are represented in twenty 
other States. 





UNIVERSALISTS 


THE Universalists as a religious denomination are 
a decadent body. The reports for 1912, the latest 
figures obtainable, compared with the census re- 
ports of 1906, show a decrease in number of organi- 
zations of two hundred and forty-seven. There has 
been a slight increase in membership during the 
period. But, according to a Universalist writer, 
“that the course of the Church as a separate body 
is nearly run is a not uncommon opinion.” On the 
other hand, it is claimed that Universalist opinion 
is largely on the increase and that there are more 
Universalists outside the denomination than inside. 
The claim is made that all Christian Scientists hold 
the Universalist doctrine; that the same is true of 
more than one-half of the Unitarians, one-third of 
the Episcopalians, and many Congregationalists ; 
and that there are numerous believers in this doc- 
trine in nearly all denominations. It is known that 
all the British and Continental Unitarians are also 
Universalists in opinion. 

Universalists, while holding a great variety of 
doctrines, are agreed in the belief that all souls will 
be finally reconciled to God and made righteous. 
This universal salvation is to be accomplished by 
Jesus Christ, the great revealer of God, whose work 
in the world is to bring men into harmony with 
God. There is no place found in Universalist the- 
ology for a satisfaction theory of Christ’s death or 

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for a work of atonement. Salvation is not exemp- 
tion from the consequences of sin, but from the dis- 
position to sin. Punishment is an inevitable se- 
quence of sin, is divinely appointed, and is remedial 
and beneficent; whence it follows that it cannot be 
endless, for endless punishment would be vindictive. 
Souls that are not made holy in this life will be 
visited by punishment and discipline in the next 
life, calculated, as it is in the present life, to,’re- 
cover and to restore the soul. It is held that there 
are many “losing fights” in this life and that souls 
are “lost” in the sense of being excluded after death, 
as here, from the presence of God; but it is main- 
tained that the soul “will fight until it wins” and 
that throughout its conflict it will have the as- 
sistance of the heavenly powers. 

The Winchester Profession of Faith, adopted at 
Winchester, N. H., in 1803, sets forth the essential - 
principles of the Universalist faith as embracing 

1. The universal fatherhood of God. 

2. The spiritual authority and leadership of his 
Son, Jesus Christ. 

3. The trustworthiness of the Bible as containing 
a revelation from God. 

4. The certainty of just retribution for sin. 

5. The final harmony of all souls with God. 

During the first one hundred years Universalist 
churches were independent and congregational. 
Since 1870 a general convention, which meets bien- 
nially, has had authority to govern the Churches in 
matters of fellowship, ordination, and discipline. 
There are now also State conventions, meeting an- 
nually. A system of State and general superintend- 


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ency has been adopted. The sacraments are ob- 
served, the mode of baptism being left to the choice 
of the candidate. The denomination carries on mis- 
sionary work in Japan and maintains four colleges 
and five academies, also three theological schools. 

In 1912 there were 702 ministers, 709 churches, 
and 51,716 members, found mainly in New York 
and Massachusetss, with Maine, Illinois, and Ohio 
next in membership. Reports in 1916 give 561 min- 
isters, 644 churches, and 46,775 members. 





VEDANTA SOCIETY 


Tus was formed in New York in 1898, based 
upon doctrines of a Hindu philosophy, as promul- 
gated in a series of lectures given in New York by 
a visitor to the World’s Parliament of Religions, 
Chicago World’s Fair, 1892. Societies for the study 
and dissemination of the Vedanta religion or phi- 
losophy have been formed also in Boston, San Fran- 
cisco, and Los Angeles. Membership, 350. 

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